Q: What are my rights as a multiple generation descendant of colonisers in South Africa? According to the law, am I legal?
I am concerned about where I am supposed to be, according to the law, as a multiple generation descendant of, I guess, white colonisers. My husband is Scottish (I am not so familiar with their role in history). My family was largely from the Netherlands, and split up during the big South African war, so I guess we were part of British Imperialism in the strictest sense, and we are white, so will be seen as colonisers when shaved with a rough blade. Legally, are we allowed in South Africa? Under international law, what are the rights of descendants of colonisers? Are we legally actually supposed to leave and "go back" to Europe (which neither me nor my parents nor their parents have ever seen) somewhere or are we deemed true citizens of South Africa? The rhetoric in the media seems to be that I have no right to be here. I guess in some weird sense I want to know how to atone for the sins of my fathers?! But more realistically, what will hold in a court?
A: Your question is not one of International Law, but of South African Law, and your best answers would be from a South African lawyer. That said, I can suggest that I know a bit about yoir country, and perhaps a bit more than you know. The Afrikaners, ethnic Dutch and Hugonaut settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 17th century, are quite distinct from the British immigrants who arrived after the Napoleonic Wars and ultimately prevailed in the Boer Wars. More recently, the African native population defeated apartheid and achieved the vote, but the new government expressly recognized the equal rights of the long-since indigenous White settlers. Indeed, during my two visits on legal business, it certainly seemed that most of the property control remained in the same white hands that held it before the end of apartheid. Perhaps your experience is different, and you should discuss that experience with a South African lawyer.
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