The Right to Self Determination for the Khoi-San People in the Western Cape Region of South Africa

Abstract

This research report analyses the extent to which the Khoi-San people in the Western Cape region of South Africa are entitled to self-determination under international law and South African law, and if so, which form(s) of self-determination can they exercise and under what circumstances. A human-rights centred analysis to the right is undertaken to add on to the discourse about a rearranged approach to the concept of ‘self’ in self-determination especially in the post-colonial context. Having considered the substance of the right under international law and South African law, the research report places the Khoi-San people as a people whose subjugation remains embedded in South Africa’s history of colonisation. Within this context, the research report proposes that self-determination should be understood as more people- centred than it might have been in the colonial period. The report thereafter concludes that within this post-colonial framework, the Khoi-San people in the Western Cape region of South Africa are entitled to self-determination. Whether this entitlement is for internal or external self-determination is a question of balancing several interests which the report considers