DRAFT TRADITIONAL AND KHOI-SAN LEADERSHIP BILL, 2024

This fact sheet, produced by Natural Justice in February 2025, provides an overview of the Draft Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB), 2024. The Bill is proposed legislation intended to formally recognise and regulate Traditional and Khoi-San leadership structures in South Africa, following a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling that declared the previous 2019 Act unconstitutional due to insufficient public participation and concerns over land dispossession.

• The Draft Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB), 2024, aims to establish a legal framework for the recognition of Traditional and Khoi-San leaders, addressing historical exclusions of Khoi-San communities from formal governance and aligning leadership with constitutional values of equality, democracy, and human rights.
• The 2024 Bill was introduced after the Constitutional Court found the Traditional Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 of 2019 to be unconstitutional and invalid. The court's decision was based on a lack of adequate public participation, the potential for land dispossession without community consent, the entrenchment of old Bantustan boundaries, and the unconstitutional strengthening of traditional council powers.
• The TKLB 2024 includes specific sections for the recognition of leadership: Section 8 outlines the process for Traditional and Khoi-San leadership recognition, while Section 10 details the process for recognising a branch head or senior Khoi-San leader. Chapter 3 provides the associated criteria and processes.
• The Bill contains several gaps and limitations regarding governance and representation: Traditional and Khoi-San leaders may participate in and advise municipal councils but have no voting rights or decision-making authority. Additionally, while the Bill mandates that one in three council representatives must be women, it lacks enforcement mechanisms for the representation of women and marginalised groups in decision-making and consultations.

APA

Natural Justice (2025). DRAFT TRADITIONAL AND KHOI-SAN LEADERSHIP BILL, 2024. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Factsheet_Draft-TKS-Bill_FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. DRAFT TRADITIONAL AND KHOI-SAN LEADERSHIP BILL, 2024. 2025. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Factsheet_Draft-TKS-Bill_FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=DRAFT TRADITIONAL AND KHOI-SAN LEADERSHIP BILL, 2024 |date=February 2025 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Factsheet_Draft-TKS-Bill_FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2025draft, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{DRAFT TRADITIONAL AND KHOI-SAN LEADERSHIP BILL, 2024}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Factsheet_Draft-TKS-Bill_FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }