{"id":196881,"date":"2019-10-26T06:43:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T06:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=196881"},"modified":"2021-07-14T19:32:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T19:32:11","slug":"an-indictment-of-south-africa-whites-only-town-orania-is-booming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=196881","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An indictment of South Africa’: whites-only town Orania is booming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 Oct 25, 2019<\/h1>\n
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Children at the public swimming pool in Orania. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The western corporate media has had it in for White Afrikaners for decades now. That’s because they were not only disinclined to follow the British Empire’s plans for southern Africa, they were also openly hostile to the corporate culture’s plans for the region.<\/h5>\n
Whereas the Boers were farmers, both the Rothschild-backed Anglo-American and De Beers corporations controlled most of South Africa\u2019s vast mineral wealth, or at least they did during the apartheid era. During those years both corporations were instrumental in securing Mandela\u2019s release from prison and thereafter they helped the ANC\u2019s ascent to power. Although, of course, the objective was not to improve the lot of poor South Africans but to ensure they continued to dominate the country\u2019s lucrative mining sector.<\/h5>\n
Even Ronnie Kasrils, an ANC activist and friend of Mandela, admitted that the Party leaders had sold Black South Africans \u201cdown the river<\/a><\/span>\u201d in their deals with the mining giants.<\/h5>\n
None of this is mentioned in the following Guardian report. It also makes one other crucial omission. Violent crime is now endemic in South Africa with many residents ready to emigrate because of the appalling rates of murder and assault. Around 57 people are murdered every day in South Africa, making it one of world\u2019s most dangerous countries<\/a><\/span>, and murder and rape rates are climbing.<\/h5>\n
In contrast, a Black teenage girl was shot and wounded in the leg just outside Orania in 2000, nearly 20 years ago. That’s the one major crime I could find that had been committed in Orania. Contrast that with the 57-58 murders PER DAY in South Africa and you can begin to grasp why the White Afrikaners first implemented the policy of apartheid.<\/h5>\n
Crucially, the following report makes absolutely no mention of South Africa\u2019s appalling rates of violent crime. Nor does it mention the near absence of violent crime in Orania. The omission is significant and, we suspect, deliberate because the growth of violent crime in South Africa has undoubtedly contributed directly to the growth of Orania.<\/h5>\n
Not that the Guardian would say so. It is too busy spouting liberal clich\u00e9s to state the obvious. Ed.<\/h5>\n

\u2018An indictment of South Africa’: whites-only town Orania is booming<\/h1>\n

Dennis Webster in Orania \u2013 The Guardian Oct 24, 2019<\/h2>\n

October in Orania can be charming. When the sun sets, long ribbons of burnt orange settle on the horizon. The flies and mosquitoes that come with the summer\u2019s oppressive heat haven\u2019t arrived yet. It is Magdalene Kleynhans\u2019 favourite time of year. \u201cYou can sit outside until late into the night,\u201d says the businesswoman, whose family spends much of their time outdoors. Her children fish from the banks of the Orange River whenever they choose. Kleynhans leaves the house unlocked. \u201cIt\u2019s a good life. It\u2019s a big privilege.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is much more to this small Northern Cape town than the bucolic ideal painted by Kleynhans. Incredibly, 25 years after the fall of apartheid, Orania is a place for white people only.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kleynhans runs one of Orania\u2019s biggest enterprises: a call centre whose business is recruiting and retaining members for Solidariteit, a trade union primarily for Afrikaner workers, and Afriforum, a self-styled \u201ccivil rights\u201d movement. Afriforum recently met with US president Donald Trump\u2019s administration and Tucker Carlson<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of Fox News to tell them that Afrikaners are facing a widely discredited<\/strong><\/span><\/a> genocide. Both have made extensive investments in Orania\u2019s construction boom.<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/h5>\n
Actually, claims about the levels of violent crime in South Africa have NOT been discredited. Despite the Guardian\u2019s reference to “widely discredited genocide”, the South African government itself now acknowledges that the country is turning into a \u201cwar zone<\/span><\/a>\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Rising crime, much of it targeting white farmers, also accounts for the mass exodus of Afrikaner farmers<\/a><\/span> from South Africa to southern Russia.<\/h5>\n
Once again this salient point is entirely unmentioned by the Guardian. White Boer farmers are leaving South Africa, just as Rhodesian farmers once left Zimbabwe, because violence and government incompetence is forcing them to. Indeed, events in South Africa are almost an exact replay of what happened in Rhodesia: where the advent of majority rule turned what was once called \u2018Africa’s bread-basket’ into a barren dustbowl.<\/h5>\n
Instead of highlighting this related fact, the Guardian obscures the truth of the matter. Making this article an example of how journalism is being used as a means of propaganda. Ed.<\/h5>\n
—<\/h5>\n

Oranians claim the town is a cultural project, not a racial one. Only Afrikaners are allowed to live and work there to preserve Afrikaner culture, the argument goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality, however, is a disquieting and entirely white town, littered with old apartheid flags and monuments to the architects of segregation. While there are no rules preventing black people from visiting, those who live nearby fear they would be met with violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The town has faced numerous calls for it to be broken up over the years, with prominent author<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>and advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi arguing its existence violates South Africa\u2019s successful dismantling of racial segregation. \u201cOrania,\u201d he says, \u201crepresents downright hostility to the idea of a single, united, non-racial country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Large-scale eviction<\/h2>\n

Orania was created in 1991, a year after Nelson Mandela\u2019s release from Robben Island, and three years before the country\u2019s first democratic election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Set among lush pecan nut orchards in the otherwise arid Karoo, it was set-up as an Afrikaner-only hamlet, not dissimilar from the ethnic Bantustans established under former prime minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, often dubbed the \u201carchitect of apartheid\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the end of the 1980s, the probability of losing control had already occurred to many Afrikaners, with some believing that impending democracy posed an existential threat to the white Afrikaans way of life. A few felt protecting that required becoming a demographic majority somewhere, rather than remaining a minority everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

So a small group of Afrikaners \u2013 Verwoerd\u2019s daughter and son-in-law, Carel Boshoff, among them \u2013 purchased a strip of land on the southern banks of the Orange River, and went about setting up a volkstaat<\/em>, or independent homeland, where Afrikaners would decide their own affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orania\u2019s founders did not settle on virgin territory, but on the remains of a half-realised 1960s project to build canals and dams along the Orange River. A community of 500 poor black and mixed-race squatters who had made their homes in the buildings left behind by the project stood between the new owners and their whites-only vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to the community after the purchase, Boshoff reportedly said he \u201cdid not buy a bus with passengers\u201d. What followed, according to Cambridge historian Edward Cavanagh\u2019s history<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of land rights on the Orange River, was one of the last large-scale evictions under apartheid. It was carried out by the future residents of Orania, with the assistance of beatings, pistol whippings and dogs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The population has doubled<\/h2>\n

After three decades as a quiet backwater, Orania is booming. Its population \u2013 currently around 1,700 \u2013 has doubled over the last seven years. The most recent census estimates growth of more than 10% a year, outstripping most comparable rural towns and more, proportionally, than South Africa\u2019s biggest cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Population growth means a flourishing housing market and construction industry. Neat suburban homes have been joined by new apartment blocks and walkups which sell for as much as R1.5 million (\u00a380,000), putting them on par with comparable homes in Johannesburg. There is an industrial zone of brick and aluminium factories which sell their products around South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. China buys most of the pecan nuts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The growth shows no signs of slowing. A sewage works meant to accommodate 10,000 future residents is in the pipeline. There are designs to transform the town\u2019s humble technical training facility \u2013 where many of the skills driving the town\u2019s new construction were taught \u2013 into a university.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Not a single brick has been laid by a black worker. In a reverse of the usual situation in South Africa, all low-paying work in Orania \u2013 from keeping the town\u2019s gardens to packing the shelves in its grocery stores \u2013 is performed by hard-up white Afrikaners. It is increasing numbers of poor labourers, whose tenancy is often less secure and who either rent or rely on subsidies from Orania\u2019s cooperative bank, who are largely behind the town\u2019s growing population.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Orania is owned by the Vluytjeskraal Aandeleblok (Vluytjeskraal Share Block) company which, together with a series of internally elected bodies, is responsible for the town\u2019s municipal decision making.<\/span><\/p>\n

People who want to live in Orania buy shares in the Vluytjeskraal Aandeleblok, instead of freehold. The screening of prospective shareholders allows for tight control. Buyers undergo extensive vetting, central to which is their fidelity to Afrikaans language and culture, a commitment to employing only white Afrikaners, and a string of conservative Christian undertakings. Unmarried couples, for instance, cannot live together.<\/span><\/p>\n

The town exists at the mercy of the South African constitution. In the early 2000s, a planned remapping of boundaries that would have brought Orania under the control of a democratically elected municipality appeared to spell the end, but the town successfully appealed to the high court using the constitutional rights of the country\u2019s minority cultural groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pursued and harassed<\/h2>\n

A quarter of a century after the end of apartheid, black people are restricted to using the filling station on the edge of Orania. Benjamin Khumalo* is one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 55-year-old and his wife, who have lived on a small nearby plot since the 1980s, were once pursued and harassed by a pickup truck covered with Orania stickers when walking home after an evening with friends. \u201cNow you must run,\u201d he urged his wife, pushing her through a fence. \u201cI\u2019ll be behind you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Khumalo still remembers when Orania was a home for black families. The guns carried on the hips of many Oranians, however, have been enough to convince him never to enter the town again. \u201cThey will hurt you,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is nothing we can do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Orania\u2019s white residents have a different take. The town\u2019s doctor, Philip Nothnagel, describes South African cities as \u201cwarzones\u201d. He lived in the country\u2019s administrative capital, Pretoria, before he moved to Orania. The 10 months since have been the best of his life, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time in history that a country has been established without a war,\u201d he adds, sporting a Lincolnesque beard after he dressed up as Paul Kruger during recent celebrations of the Boer hero. \u201cIt\u2019s like boere<\/em> [white Afrikaners] Disneyland. Except you never have to go home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The spectre of Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, is difficult to escape. His portrait and bust seem to be around every corner. His wife, Betsie, is buried in the town, and her old home has been converted into a Verwoerd museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

His grandson Carel Boshoff junior is a former leader of the Orania Movement, which first proposed the idea of Orania in the 1980s. Boshoff junior is perhaps one of the more unlikely fans of the pianist Abdullah Ibrahim<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, whose music plays on a laptop in his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like his parents and grandparents, Boshoff fears white Afrikaners face a real threat of \u201cbeing wiped out\u201d, either through violence or what he calls \u201camalgamation\u201d. He believes the recent expansion of Orania is just the start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are something like the phoenix in the ashes,\u201d he says. \u201cThe questions to which Orania is the answer are so fundamental to the structure of South African society that you can\u2019t express and affirm your Afrikaner identity without coming to the conclusion of a bigger Orania.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Offended by Orania<\/h2>\n

Orania has continued largely uncontested since its victorious appeal to the high court in the early 2000s. The ANC government does not appear to be considering an appeal of the high court decision. Zamani Saul, head of the ANC-run Northern Cape government, has said<\/strong><\/span><\/a> an inquiry into Orania\u2019s legal status is yet to be concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Ngcukaitobi, the author, Orania \u201crepresents the reversal of the constitutional project of national building.\u201d The rights that underpinned the town\u2019s high court challenge against the remapping are not unlimited, he says. Anyone who cares about South Africa \u201cwould rightly be offended by what Orania represents, which is an enduring legacy of racial mobilisation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orapeleng Moraladi, Northern Cape secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, blames the town\u2019s continued existence on the courts, an uncooperative Orania leadership, and a lack of political will from the ANC. \u201c[The town] is like embracing an apartheid system within a democratic state,\u201d he says. \u201cOrania is an indictment of the government of South Africa.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a testimony to the failure of the corporate-owned post-apartheid South Africa that a small white\u2019s only town in the Northern Cape is flourishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-south-africa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196881"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196921,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196881\/revisions\/196921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}