In October 2003 the Constitutional Court ruled that 3,000 Nama people from Northern Cape were the victims of racial discrimination when they were evicted from their land in the 1950s to make way for a diamond mine. The Nama, a small indigenous Khoikhoi group, took the Government and the mining companies to court and won.

The Court said that their ancient, unwritten rules for land ownership could not be swept aside and that to do so was racial discrimination. The Court ordered the return of 85,000 hectares of land to the Nama.