The !Xun and Khwe San People are indigenous peoples in Southern Africa. The !Xun and Khwe Community is current residing at Schmidtsdrift, in the Northern Cape Province. In 1990 they have been relocated to South Africa from Namibia by the former South African Defense Force after Namibia’s independence. When the !Xun and Khwe arrived at Schmidtsdrift, they were granted South African citizenship.

The !Xun and Khwe speak different San languages and communicate in Afrikaans with each other. There are similarities and differences with regard to their traditions and culture. Some members of the !Xun and Khwe community are still serving on the South African National Defense Force as soldiers.

In 1993, the !Xun and Khwe Trust was established as a development body which included members of the !Xun and Khwe Community, civilian outsiders (people not from the !Xun and Khwe Community) and army representatives. In 1997 when a piece of 13 000 hectare land was purchased for the community through the Land Reform Programme of the Department of Land Affairs. There was a need for the establishment of a Communal Property Association that could manage the communal property of the community (including the land purchased). The !Xun and Khwe Communal Property Association was established and it took over the role of the !Xun & Khwe Trust that played the specific role of Interim Legal Entity who negotiated all the different aspects regarding the purchase of land and property for the !Xun & Khwe Community.

In 1999 the !Xun and Khwe Community was officially awarded the title deed of the farms Platfontein, Wildebeestkuil & Droogfontein (nearby Kimberley in die Northern-Cape Province of the RSA, handed over by the former President of the RSA, Nelson Mandela.

Different processes followed, especially in the establishment of a Residential Area for the Communities. Through thorough Pubic Participation processes, this residential area was established and all sectors of planning through Consulting and Government took place, in such a manner that a full-scale Township area (as a suburb of Kimberley) was registered during the beginning of 2001. Currently the Communal Property Association employs a Project Management Team in order to ensure the effective relocation of the Community into housing and to provide the different infrastructure necessary.

Education and Language of the Community:

The !Xun and Khwe children attend school in foreign language which is Afrikaans. Children usually speak their mother tongue at home. The !Xun and Khwe Languages are represented on the Khoe and San National language Body, that is a body which falls under the Pan South African Language Board.