Future of Orania may be obscured by Karoo dust

From this article it would seem that Orania is not yet the success that was hoped for.

The volkstaat halfway between Hopetown and Petrusville on the R369 in the Northern Cape, cannot be called a success by any stretch of the imagination

As an experiment in social engineering Orania, the volkstaat halfway between Hopetown and Petrusville on the R369 in the Northern Cape, cannot be called a success by any stretch of the imagination.

When the village celebrated its 10th anniversary in April 2004, the population was a little more than 1 000. Today, the total population is 618, with the normal dispersion of children, adults and elderly people.

Ornate and open concrete gates welcome visitors. Orania‘s flag flutters lightly in the breeze. The flag is in the former South African colours of orange, white and blue.

Superimposed is a figure of a boy rolling up his sleeves in white. The white figure overlaps the blue and orange.

Situated in the harsh Karoo scrubland on the dusty banks of the Orange River, Orania is the last outpost of Afrikanerdom.

As the midday sun sends out its blistering rays, it is unimaginable that anyone would choose to live there – however strong their beliefs.

Before the first democratic elections, die-hard Afrikaners – claiming their culture and history would be swallowed up in the new democratic state of South Africa – demanded their own white state.

The new ANC government found a loophole in the constitution and graciously conceded to their demands.

As we drive along the well-kept paved road, we see a large head-and-shoulders bronze statue of former prime minister HF Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, festooned in flowers.

Of residents there is little sign. There is an emptiness that is quite surreal, although publicity spokesman Lida Strydom assures us that it is a “flourishing little town”.

Our targets are the Koeksister Monument honouring not just the modern women, but those of yesteryear who bore the trials and tribulations of lonely, primitive farms, the Great Trek and the two Boer Wars.

The 2m-high monument was unveiled in 2003 by koeksister expert Anna Boshoff, daughter of Verwoerd.

The brainchild of Orania‘s Kaalvoet Women‘s Organisation, it was named after Voortrekker Susanna Smit who said she would rather walk barefoot over the Drakensberg than suffer under British rule.

The other is the assembly of monuments on a koppie overlooking the town. On plinths are head and shoulders of former Afrikaner presidents and prime ministers including Paul Kruger. In front of the curved display is the little boy in the same pose as on the flag.

“Orania was developed after Pretoria-based Professor Carel Boshoff and other supporters realised that the Afrikaner was becoming a suppressed minority group and losing its unique way of life,” said Strydom.

“We needed land where we could be self-reliant. Our focus is on developing and retaining our own unique culture, but at the same time we are also keen to help other minority groups to rebuild and practise theirs.

“One of the cornerstones of Orania is ‘selfwerksaamheid‘, meaning that as a group we are able to do everything ourselves. We do not exploit other cultures to do our dirty work, but at the same time we are a sustainable community,” she said.

“The dream is slowly becoming a reality. Although not many people settled in Orania, we have a lot of supporters worldwide and more and more people are becoming interested in the idea of Orania as the solution to many problems.”

Orania was originally a camp for water affairs department labourers during the construction of the Vanderkloofdam – a vital link in the giant Orange River irrigation scheme.

“The department built the village from scratch using pre-fab housing on large plots framed by broad pavements.

A multi-purpose community hall, a large swimming pool, tennis courts and a squash court provided adequate sporting facilities.

Part of Orania‘s development included a post office, a guest house, a clinic and a shop. Later a church and a school were added.”

But when the work had been completed, the village slowly deteriorated.

In 1990 the former government decided to sell what remained of the village as a single entity. Members of Afstig (the Afrikaner Freedom Movement) saw the advertisement in Landbouweekblad and decided to tender.

They collected a group of shareholders and not long afterwards Orania was bought by the newly developed Orania Bestuursdienste for R1,5-million.

Developing the volkstaat began in April 1991 and houses were offered for sale at prices between R31 000 and R41 000.

In August 1991 the neighbouring farm Vluytjekraal 272 (approximately 2 300ha) was bought for a further R480 000, thus providing agricultural development.

The town council came into being and took over the management of the village, with the first mayor being Andre van den Berg.

An upbeat Strydom said: “The community has come alive again. There are now two schools with pupils from Grade 0 to matric.” Residents were employed internally “like any normal town” and a few worked outside the village.

“Our community lifestyle is very important. We support local business. We mostly have small businesses, where a few people are employed, but there are quite a lot of them – goldsmiths, farmers, teachers and technical workers.

“The basis of our strategy in Orania is the assumption that if ethnic minorities (such as ourselves here in South Africa) do not have some protected spaces, our culture and way of life will be unable to survive the pressures of globalisation, hostile governments and integration.

“It has become the responsibility of every group to preserve their own unique culture. The Afrikaners of Orania believe in the right to self-determination for all people irrespective of race, culture or creed.”

Of significance is that Orania has its own currency – the ora introduced in April 2004.

The currency, sponsored by a local optometrist – acts like a coupon system and according to Strysom has been very successful in stimulating the circulation of money and Orania‘s local economy.

“The profit from the first series was used to help sponsor broadband internet for the community,” she said.

“Another positive fact about Orania is our ecological conscience. We realise the importance of the ecology and aim to eventually produce at least 50% of our own food locally.

"We are one of few municipalities that separate our garbage at source in order to recycle.”

“Orania functions like any normal town, except for the fact that we have a common dream, and we live that dream,” she said.

From a ghost town to a dream is the story of this tiny boerestaat, but with dwindling numbers, for how long?

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Nothing Ever Happens in Afrikaner Heaven

Some unkind words from the people at Time Inc.

The anniversary solemnly marked on a rocky hilltop last week by the residents of Orania is not observed by many South Africans. Bittereinderdag (Bitter-ender Day) commemorates those among the Boers who refused to abide by the peace agreement concluded by their leaders more than a century ago, and fought to the bitter end against the advancing British Empire. But the townsfolk of Orania, a privately owned community populated by some 600 white Afrikaners who, like their forebears, never accepted the peace deal made by their own leaders that brought black majority rule to South Africa, use the day to rededicate themselves to the fading ideal of a separate Afrikaner nation state.

During the transition from apartheid to democracy in the early 1990s, Orania's founding fathers envisaged the town as the center of a new Volkstaat (People's State) that would emerge as a refuge for the country's 2.5 million Afrikaners who were expected to flee the post-apartheid society. And although only 600 Afrikaners followed them, they remain undeterred.

"South Africa is now the youngest black republic in Africa. That leaves the Afrikaner feeling uneasy," says Carel Boshoff, a white-haired former theology professor who has lived here since 1992. "As we experience more and more the marginalization of the Afrikaner in language, in public life, in institutions, the need for an Afrikaner region is growing."

Many Afrikaners are certainly feeling uneasy. Poverty and unemployment are on the rise, and rampant violent crime has increased feelings of insecurity. As towns and streets once named in honor of Afrikaner heroes are steadily renamed, the huge success of a folk song celebrating Boer War general Koos De La Rey signaled a hunger for a return to Afrikaner pride.

Boshoff had once hoped that his vision of a self-sufficient Afrikaner homeland would draw 60,000 people to Orania. But after 13 years of black rule in South Africa, Afrikaner separatism remains a quirky fringe movement. Orania flies its own flag, and prints its own currency, the Ora. A large monument to the koeksister— sticky donut renowned as an Afrikaans delicacy — stands near the town swimming pool. But for all but a few stalwarts, the dream of the Volkstaat has quietly faded away. City dwellers regard Orania with a mixture of bemusement and scorn. Most recently, the town drew headlines when a man announced plans to open a whites-only nudist colony here — a plan the Oranians say they will reject.

"People tend to define us in terms of the old apartheid, but we're way past that," says John Strydom, another longtime Orania resident. "People like to call us racists, and if you look hard enough you'll find a racist or two here. But there are racists in Cape Town as well."

The differences between Oranians and the Afrikaners of the apartheid era, says Strydom, is that his community have shunned the reliance on low-paid black labor upon which apartheid was built. "We're a new breed of Afrikaners, because we do our own work," he says. Here, the garbage is collected and the houses of the wealthy are kept clean by poorer white people. "Our motto is self-sufficiency," says Strydom. "If you can't do something yourself, you go to someone within the community first. Then you look for someone within your own culture."

On the morning of Bittereinderdag, new bronze busts of Hendrik Verwoerd (the notorious architect of apartheid) and other Afrikaner icons are unveiled before an audience of 60 people. Some sport koeksister T-shirts; others wear orange, white and blue, the colors of the Boer Republic defeated by the British. Among the busts stands a statue depicting a boy rolling up his sleeves to get down to work. The same logo adorns the flag and the orange and blue baseball caps popular among residents.

Leaving the ceremony, Odel and Rene, two teenage girls, say they are glad to live in Orania, because here the Afrikaans language and culture is protected. "Many of the schools of the Afrikaans people have closed," says Odel. "They want to have Kaffirkaans, not Afrikaans."

"Kaffir" is an old Afrikaans racial epithet for black people, derived from the Arabic term for "infidel." But when asked if she refers to the term whose use is now banned under legal penalty in South Africa, she just giggles.

Still, both girls say they plan to move away from Orania when they grow up. "Sometimes it's just too quiet here," says Rene.

Source

Afrikaner faces identity crisis: Orania leader

Carel Boshoff, the leader of the self-proclaimed Volkstaat Orania in the Northern Cape, says the Afrikaner community is facing an identity crisis. Boshoff was speaking at Orania's Monument Hill, which has been designed to accommodate statues of Afrikaner leaders from the past government. Some of the figures have been removed from prominent places in the country. Boshoff says the Afrikaner community is struggling with its sense of belonging. "I heard 1 million people have already left the country and half of them would be Afrikaners, so we may have a losing future if we cannot keep our people in this country and create a future for ourselves, so the question for the future of the Afrikaner is a very sincere one," he said.

Source

The real deal

Here is a map of the two Boer Republics before the Anglo Boer War.

Interview With Freedom Front General-Secretary Col. Piet Uys

Afrikaner Independence (1): Interview With Freedom Front General-Secretary Col. Piet Uys David Storobin, Esq. - 5/24/2005

In late 1992, South Africa's Conservative Party, together with other white right wing organizations and three Black Homeland leaders (Mangosuthu Buthelezi of KwaZulu, Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana and Oupa Gqozo of Ciskei) founded COSAG, the Concerned South African Group, which promoted the idea of a confederacy on ethnic/tribal basis. In May of the following year, CP and 20 other organizations organized the AVF, Afrikaner People's Front, which merged together with COSAG in July 1993 under the name Freedom Alliance. [Afrikaners are South Africans who lived in the country for several hundred years, and were originally of Dutch, German, French and other West European descent, but have since developed into their own separate ethnic group.]

The head of AVF was General Constand Viljoen, the former leader of the South African Defense Force. Several dozen other generals joined the organization. Within months, the AVF claimed the support of 100,000 out of 150,000 South African commandos, as well as much of the police, while the army remained on the side of the then-governing National Party.

As rumors of Civil War spread, the AVF began preparing for a potential military conflict, in part to protect themselves and in part to achieve Afrikaner sovereignty on at least part of South African land (probably Transvaal and Orange Free State).

Shortly before RSA's first non-racial elections, the government of the Bophuthatswana asked for help from the AVF, but along with Gen. Viljoen's force, extremists from the AWB (Afrikaner Resistance Movement) showed up and began firing on what were supposed to be the Whites' allies among Blacks. Since its founding in the early 1970's, AWB repeatedly was charged with being covert instigators and saboteurs for the then-governing National Party against conservative opposition, created by the NP to embarass the right wing.

As a result of AWB actions, cooperation between Black homeland leaders and conservative Afrikaners was scaled down. As a result, Gen. Viljoen decided not to engage in any resistance, instead choosing to participate in the political process under the new party banner Freedom Front (www.vryheidsfront.co.za/index.asp?l=e). As part of FF's negotiations with the ANC, a clause regarding negotiations on Afrikaner self-determination became part of the RSA's Constitution and government-sponsored Volkstaat Council was formed discuss the idea. It was disbanded in 1999, with no response to any of the Council's recommendations.

The Conservative Party - and other right wingers, including the Reformed National Party (splinter group from the governing NP) - at the time condemned FF's decision to join the political process. In 2003, however, the CP joined Freedom Front and they are now operating under the name Freedom Front Plus.

FF+ currently has 4 seats out of 400 in the South African parliament. In 1999, it had 3 seats and in 1994 it had 9 seats. In 2001, Gen. Viljoen retired and was replaced by Pieter Mulder as the head of FF+.

Today, we are interviewing Col. Piet Uys, the Secretary-General of Freedom Front since 1994, on the current goals and actions of the Freedom Front Plus. Prior to joining the FF, he served in the South African Army for 26 years, retiring with the rank of Colonel.

Q: What is FF+ doing currently to achieve independence or autonomy for Afrikaners?

A: Firstly, we are building the party in terms of organisation and members. The party is slowly becoming the only party in the country, and the world, who speaks on behalf of all the Afrikaners in the world. Our experience has shown that the present government reacts to pressure, and only the strong can exert pressure. We, therefore, participate in every municipal election where we have support, to enable our supporters to cast their votes in our favour. We have seen a steady indicator of growing support.

Secondly, we propagate minority rights and self-determination for all cultural groups as a prerequisite for a prosperous and happy country. This we do, not only for the Afrikaner people, but for al those other ethnic and cultural groups in the country who are starting to feel marginalised or threatened by the majority in the country.

We claim all the rights provided for in the United Nation's 1992 Declaration of the Rights of Minorities.

During the negotiation phase between the previous government and the ANC, in 1992/93, the Afrikaner people managed to arrange an Accord amongst the ANC, the National Party (then the governing party), and the Freedom Front. It was signed on 23 April 1993, and it still stands! This Accord, amongst others, makes provision for a territorial component in the self-determination we seek.

Following this Accord, the party will soon commence talks with the Thabo Mbeki administration, in order to remind them of the contents of the Accord, and that we want the governments answers on these issues.

Q: Would you be satisfied with autonomy in the short-term?

A: We will be satisfied with a system of autonomy that provides for the following :

1. Free and open access to employment - at the moment we suffer under the regulations of Affirmative Action, which effectively prevent young Whites from entering the jobs-market.

2. Control and management of our own Department of Education, and access for our childern to schools teaching in our own language.

3. The preservation of at least two universities where teaching in our language will be allowed.

4. The guarantee that the principle of the rights to private property will be safe.

5. The ability to train, at the university, Afrikaans speaking teachers, who will not only study in our language, but who will also be able to teach that language as a subject.

6. The freedom to run our own local affairs via our own municipalities, where Afrikaners are concentrated in significant numbers. (We have lost all our municipalities, except one - Orania.)

7. The freedom to establish our own Afrikaner Council, who will be our own Representative Body.

8. The freedom to arrange our own cultural affairs, like own TV, own Radio, etc.

Q: Would the ANC potentially agree to autonomy?

A: Yes, if it is to their benefit. They will be surprised at the large amount of goodwill that will be generated when Afrikaners regain autonomy!

Q: The idea of Afrikaner self-determination has been attacked as racist and unfair to Blacks. Is FF+ respected in the RSA or is it considered a marginal, extremist organization?

A: The Freedsom Front Plus is well respected in the country because we honestly state our case. Many do not agree with us, but still respect us because they know where they stand with us. We believe in the rights of minorities and in self-determination, not only for the Afrikaners, bur for all the groups in the country.

Q: Following the demise of the National Party (joined the ANC) and the Conservative Party (joined the FF), which were the two primary parties in the RSA during the era of apartheid, the Democratic Alliance became the largest predominantly-white party. However, unlikely the FF, it is mostly aligned with Anglos, Jews and other English-speakers, not Afrikaners. What is their position on Afrikaner self-determination?

A: The DA is openly against group rights, and will never support Afrikaner independence, but they might agree to some other form of Afrikaner self-detemination.

Q: What about other parties?

A: Your question is complicated, but I should mention the following:

1. The National Party has died, and they were fierce opponents of our ideas.

2. The Conservative Party has joined the Freedom Front.

3. Our strength regarding supporters has grown - we are literally the only party in the world fighting for the rights of Afrikaners .

4. For what it is worth, we still have a written Accord with the ANC, which makes provision for self-determination; they still owe us an answer.

Q: Are you optimistic about gaining independence for Afrikaners in part of South Africa?

A: If you ask whether we are optimistic abour the future, I must confess that we can see the hand of experienced Communists in everything the government does. And that is a problem.

Q: When it became clear that Afrikaners will no longer be able to govern the RSA and Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) will likely take over reigns of the country, a group of Afrikaners bought an abandoned, remote village of Orania and ever since have tried to create an Afrikaner-only autonomy, refusing to hire others, namely Blacks, to do their labor, and even issuing their own money. What is the FF+ view of Orania and do you cooperate with their leadership?

A: The Freedom Front has a direct interest in the success of Orania, and also assists their information "desk" with a small financial contribution. Orania has growed considerably over the past 10 years, and has also increased in size. The secret of its success lies not only in money, but also in sustainable projects, and in the principle of Afrikaners doing their own labour, whether it be highly skilled scientific work, or manual labour! Never again must we rely on another ethnic group to do our work! You are invited to visit their website at www.orania.co.za

Q: There have been claims that the AWB was set up a provocateur organization by the NP and the RSA intelligence to discredit the Afrikaner right as neo-Nazis. AWB has been plagued with terrible leadership, constant scandals, over-the-top statements and actions, and most of all, has a Nazi-like symbol. Do you know if they are indeed a provocateur organization?

A: We always heard rumours that the AWB was a Security Police set-up. The organisation surely had agents of the Security Services inside, but this is a normal thing for a government to do. But will they ever admit that openly, especially at this late stage? I think not. As long as we do not have any proof, these charges remain mere rumours.

The AWB is a spent force. After 1994, and especially after their leader, Mr. Eugene Terre Blanche was jailed for assaulting a black petrol pump attendant, the movement fell apart. Mr. Terre Blanche is now out of jail on parole, and has very strict rules that he has to adhere to. We do not liaise with the AWB at all, as they simply do not exist anymore. The subject AWB is actually dead in this country.

Q: There have been recent reports about the Freedom Front working to free prisoners jailed for political and/or resistance/terrorist activity.

A: Unfortunately, at this very moment, there still are several men in jail who were imprisoned because of actions they took before 1994, and even after 1994, that were regarded as terrorism. (We know of 18 still in jail).

We are trying our best to have them released with amnesty, in accordance with the whole process of reconciliation. Not only do we want the ex-AWB members released, but also those members of the PAC (DS: PAC is the Pan African Congress that broke away from the ANC in 1959) and even ANC who are still left in jail.

On May 5, 2005, the Citizen newspaper in South Africa had a report called "Escape hatch for struggle villains", which referred to the situation. This report gave us some hope that the government is working on on a way to resolve the problem. But until we see them walk free, they remain in jail.

Meanwhile, the top leadership of the ANC has received blanket amnesty, without even appearing in court!

Q: What has Freedom Front done about the recommendations of the Volkstaat Council that have been ignored by the ANC?

A: They [ANC] still have not yet given any answer! We are still waiting for a response. The FF+ will follow this matter up - we cannot allow them to spend all that money, with no clear answer at all.

David Storobin is a New York lawyer who received Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Rutgers University School of Law. His Master's Thesis (M.A. - Comparative Politics) deals with the historical causes for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. He is also currently on the Board of Directors of the Ibn Khaldun Center for International Research (www.centroik.ufm.edu.gt) at the University of Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He's been interviewed on radio and cited in books as a political expert.

Source

Interview With Volkstaat Council Chair Johann Wingard

Afrikaner Independence (2): Interview With Volkstaat Council Chair Johann Wingard David Storobin, Esq. - 5/27/2005

During negotiations between South Africa's White Afrikaners and ANC, as well as other Black groups, some of the Afrikaners demanded the right to self-determination. Nelson Mandela's team promised to discuss the issue further and even included it in the new Constitution. The organization that was set up to make recommendations on the issue was the Volkstaat Council (People's State Council). Johann Wingard was chosen to be the Chairman of the Council. Today, he is discussing with us the Council's work and South Africa after apartheid.

Q: What was the mandate of the Volkstaat Council and how did it come into existence?

A: The peaceful handover of power of 1994 was achieved after lengthy negotiations by the ruling party, the National Party and the ANC/Communist party alliance. The Conservative Party, which was the parliamentary opposition, was simply sidelined during those negotiations. Gen. Constand Viljoen, representing the 'conservative' grouping, agreed with Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma of the ANC, that the unfinished business with ethnic Afrikaners needed to be addressed constitutionally. The Volkstaat Council was to be a constitutional instrument that would make a peaceful election possible. After the elections, the newly formed Freedom Front, lead by Gen. Viljoen, nominated the 20 council members after consultation with the different factions of that grouping. About half the councillors were not members of Viljoen's party. The Council was constituted on the 16th of June, 1994 in the Old Raadsaal on Church Square, Pretoria, the historic seat of Paul Krugers' South African Republic. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, delivered the address at the time.

The Volkstaat Council was established in terms of Section 184A(2) of the interim Constitution for the following purpose:

"...make recommendations and advise the government, the Constitutional Assembly, the Commission on Provincial Government (CPG) and other bodies concerned, regarding self-determination in general and the attainment thereof of a Volkstaat for the Afrikaner."

"The council shall serve as a constitutiuonal mechanism to enable proponents of the idea of a Volkstaat to Constitutionally pursue the establishment of such a Volkstaat."

The clear objective was an effort to tie the so-called right wing Afrikaners, into the new dispensation and to defuse an otherwise explosive situation.

Q: Who made up the Council? Tell us a little about yourself and other key members.

A: Twenty members were elected from all walks of life. Anna Boshoff, wife of Prof. Carel Boshoff and daughter of the late Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, was the only woman. Her son Carel iv also served. Other members were the scientist Dr. Wally Grant, formerly head of Pelindaba, our uranium enrichment facility, Attorney Chris de Jager, now a judge and Professor Hercules Booysen who is an internationally renowned jurist. Other members were Gen. Ernest Pienaar, formerly head of logistical planning of the SA Defence force, Dr. Natie Luyt, Dr. Piet Liebenberg, Dr. Chris Jooste, and Prof. Pikkie Robbertze - four academics; Mr. Koos Reyneke, an architect, Mr. Dirk Viljoen a town planner, Commandant Douw Steyn, a senior member of the civil defence system, Mr. Herman Vercueil an agricultural leader, Gen. Kobus Visser, formerly head of the CID, Mr. Mars de Klerk, an attorney, Flip Buys, a Trade Union executive, Duncan du Bois, a politician, Riaan Visagie, a teacher, and myself. I am a retired industrialist. You can find my biographical details in the Marquis' Who's Who in the World (1996, 13th edition) As can be seen, the members were not political animals, but men of standing in their own professions. There were only four or five full time members - the rest were scattered all over the country and assembled from time to time to attend committee or council meetings.

Q: What were the recommendations of the Council?

A: The Council produced several interim reports as well as a voluminous final report, which summarized the large number of individual monographs and specialist committee reports that were presented to the government from 1994 though 1999. A golden thread was the concept of internal self-determination, which was proposed as a proven device to ensure the support of ethnic minority groups -- so essential for political stability and economic development. Their three key points were:

- Areas where Afrikaners form a natural majority, should enjoy territorial self-determination at second and third tier government levels. These were demarcated. The Northwestern Cape was also mentioned as a potential area. Another was around Pretoria where more than four hundred thousand Afrikaners are living in the northern, eastern and southern Pretoria district and contiguous areas. An independent national state was not envisioned, but a province or federal state was recommended.

- The Government was requested to urgently attend to the establishment of a representative Afrikaner Council, which would be an advisory body acting as the constitutional instrument through which Afrikaners would have some corporate input into state affairs, especially on matters that affect them intimately. Representation in parliament, where numerical power is all that mattered, was not seen as a democratic system for minorities.

- The Government was requested to enact the necessary legislation as soon as possible to implement those recommendations. The council drafted the legislation for the establishment of an Afrikaner Council.

Q: How did the ANC government treat the Council when it existed? How was the Council disbanded?

The Government was never serious about the Council's work. At government official level we were regarded as fellow civil servants, merely doing a job. For serious negotiations, we were palmed off to strange facilitators. One such person being a German financial broker, another one being an emiritus professor of theology and arch liberalist. During a meeting with Pres. Nelson Mandela in the company of Genl Viljoen, I handed the Council's First Interim Report to Mandela. I wanted to discuss the contents, but Mandela was only concerned about agricultural projects for Mozambique and Tanzania, which he discussed with Viljoen. The media cameras were waiting outside. With myself and Viljoen at his side, he assured the world that Afrikaners were not such bad people after all and that he received the Council's report. He promised that the ANC would seriously consider the question of a Volkstaat! One big public relations exercise! That's it!

At other official encounters between the Council and the Government, we usually discussed administrative procedures, with Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairman of the Constitutional Council, who was co-ordinating the drafting of the final constitution. The only time that the ANC showed any interest in our work was at an encounter with a constitutional committee headed by Essop Pahad (now Minister of the Presidency). At that encounter we tabled an interim report and proposed that a tenth province be created where Afrikaners would be in a natural majority. Storming out of the committee room, he accused the Freedom Front of negotiating in bad faith. The press were waiting in the media briefing room, where he delivered a tirade of anti-Afrikaner clichès and rejected out of hand the concept of territorial self-determination as a return to apartheid.

The ANC regarded the Volkstaat Council as a 'sick joke', to paraphrase one of the leading black intellectuals during his address to the Council. Instead of defusing a constitutional deadlock, they deceived ethnic Afrikaners with empty promises of self-determination. The council's budget was simply terminated, but the Council was never formally disbanded. Not a single action resulting from the Volkstaat Council's reports emanated from the ANC government. I doubt if any government official ever opened any of our reports to read them. Thousands of high quality manhours were spent, but the ANC unashamedly reneged on the accord they made with General Viljoen to make a peaceful transition of power possible.

Q: What were/are the views of the Democratic Alliance [liberal representing mostly non-Afrikaner whites], New National Party [came out of the National Party, but became much more liberal and represented liberal white Afrikaners], Conservative Party [represented conservative Afrikaners until it joined Freedom Front], Freedom Front [slightly more moderate than the Conservative Party], AWB [extremist Afrikaner Resistence Movement], Inkatha [represents the Zulu tribe], PAC [represents radical Blacks who are usually hostile to Whites] and other parties on the Council and its recommendation? Who was most supportive and most hostile?

A: Naturally the FF was the most supportive, but, when it mattered most, they failed to provide a solid political platform for the Council's recommendations for self determination in the Pretoria area. The National Party was silent, but supported the concept of corporate self-determination via a representative council for Afrikaners. The CP accused the Council members as traitors to the cause of Afrikaners and warned that nothing could emerge from the Council's endeavours as the ANC were hell bent on a centralised phylosophy of Africanization. The AWB were not a factor. Inkatha was very sympathetic and I had useful discussions with [Zulu and Inkatha leader] Dr. Buthelezi in Cape Town. The Democratic Party [which later merged with the Federal Alliance to form the Democratic Alliance party], as it was at the time, did not support the Council's 'ethnic' approach as they were the great protagonists of the liberal dream, where the individual is placed above group interests. However, for tactical reasons, they were not vehemently outspoken.

In short, the Council was short-changed on political support and subsequently allowed to peter out.

Q: Do you have any hopes of any significant recommendations being implemented?

A: No. Afrikaners will have to shed blood for any form of self-determination, as elsewhere in the world. They were sold a pup with that constitutional mechanism. The African psyche only respects credible power. Having dismantled all the Afrikaners' power structures over ten years, they do not fear him anymore and need not consider him as anything but a useful tax base.

Q: Are you hopeful about Afrikaners gaining independence or autonomy in any part of the RSA?

A: No. The only way to achieve that aim is the African way. Civil war. Africanism is as absolute as Mohammedism [Islam]. Afrikaners are regarded as the lawful prey after a fair power contest. They were overpowered "democratically" and should now keep quiet while their assets are being distributed in the name of Black empowerment, whilsts their objected-to Western culture is being desimated.

Q: What made the NP surrender Afrikaner political power, even though they were backed by nuclear weapons, as well as Africa's strongest military, intelligence services and economy?

A: After the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902, the Boer leaders were confronted by the British negotiators. The Boers had nothing to bring to the table, other than integrity and guts. Their economy was destroyed. They have lost one third of their women and children in those awful concentration camps, which were nothing other than a system of ethnic cleansing. Nearly a hundred years later, Afrikaners were a superpower in African terms. As you say, they were a nuclear power and had a world wide intelligence system that functioned well. Their negotiators had all the hardware of war and supportive stuctures as well as a well functioning economy to bring to the table. What was lacking was integrity and guts, so that they succumbed to a tattered group of terrorists who no longer had the support of a superpower called the Soviet Union.

But during the negotiations, the man who was supposed to be his team's inspiration, was committing adultery in a millionaire's yacht in the Meditteranean Sea with a Greek businessman's wife, whom he later married. His team, headed Roelf Meyer, was already so completely brainwashed by liberal American interests, that they were a pushover for the ANC. I dealt with Meyer when he was the responsible cabinet minister for the Volkstaat Council. Sorry to say, I would not have employed him to buy me a truck, let alone to negotiate the sovereignty of a proud people like the Boer-Afrikaners. The unmandated negotiators disregarded the fact that no government or group of officials can legally alienate the inherent sovereignty of a people as an accepted international law.

Pressure from the business sector is an objective factor that should not be ignored. Ethnicity is a centrifugal force that tends to separate people, causing them to compete for resources, but the economy and sport are centripetal forces which tend to unite peoples and their interests. Business therefore saw Afrikaner ethnicity as a divisive issue to be downplayed. The pressures of big business on the negotiation process should never be underestimated. Business reckoned that they would co-opt black politicians in the same manner as they co-opted white politicians in the past, So, why not change governments as expediently as possible?

Q: Tell us about the town of Orania and the progress it is making.

A: I am sorry to say that I am unable to talk positively about Orania. I believe that it is an unrealistic dream, not unlike the Dutch of Pennsylvania. Sure, there is some progress, as would have been the case with any other property development project after ten years or longer.

Q: Do you believe Orania may become autonomous in the future, or will it become a small irrelevant village, or will it even be eliminated by the South African government?

A: No, not without bloodshed. Orania is a symbol, an icon, nothing more.

Q: Radio Pretoria has been making waves in support of Afrikaner independence. Can you tell us about them and about other media fighting for this cause?

A: I can only marvel at the resillience of Radio Pretoria's management. The printed media is trying to be politically correct so as to ensure their share of government printing contracts. Apart from an isolated small newspaper, such as the AFRIKANER, no paper serves the cause of the Afrikaner nation any more. The internet is an exception.

Q: What organizations are fighting for Afrikaner self-determination, autonomy and/or independence? How strong are they? Are they well-respected or dismissed as a tiny radical fringe?

A: Afrikaner self-determination has become a curse word in many circles and regarded as a right wing notion. Intellectuals who are still active in government circles are afraid of being victimized or that their careers may be put in jeopardy if they associate openly with the concept of self-determination, due to the fact that government policy is to forge a single nation without ethnic fault lines. There are at least thirty Afrikaner organisations who are mustering energy towards self-determination for Afrikaners. They are all splinter groups. Relics from the apartheid era, such as the Broederbond (the Brotherhood - a secret society who regulated the cultural and political landscape during the apartheid era) and the FAK (Federation of Afrikaner Cultural Organisations) are trying to transform themselves to find new horizons and visions so as to survive in a world where they no longer have any relevance or function. Those organisations are all discredited. Afrikaners have withdrawn from public and political life like snails reverting to their shells. Their ambitions and political aspirations are dormant like an Etna or Vesuvius. When and how it will erupt is uncertain. But erupt it will. The ANC's notion that the Afrikaner nation has surrendered its sovereignty is erroneous and unfounded. Just as every free person is sovereign in his own circle, so is every group of persons who consider themselves to be a free people.

Q: What are your views of the ANC? Are they better or worse than you expected in 1994?

A: The ANC turned out to be exactly as was forecasted by the renowned anthropologist Dr. Wiets Beukes when he wrote (in Afrikaans): "South Africa under a Black Government, a prognosis against the background history of Black Africa and its Thought Processes. (1993)". Although Beukes warned of an impending danger, he was ignored in 1993-94. He predicted with uncanny accuracy that a black government with unbridled 'democratic' power would follow the same patterns as all African states before it. It is in the African psyche to do so.

The demonisation of the Afrikaner community was crucial for the policies of black empowerment to survive international legal and moral scrutiny. Black empowerment is blatant racial discrimination - even worse than under the apartheid government. So it required a platform to ameliorate its moral acceptability.

Rectifying the injustices of the past was the 'hobby horse' selected. At the time, the only injustice that existed was that some South Africans were of Western and others of African extraction. That could be seen as 'an injustice to humanity' per se as a clash of civilizations was inevitable. The ANC is now turning out to be a cynical, power-hungry group of politicians, in which the Moslem community, as well as the communists have a level of influence way beyond their numerical relevance. Members of the Xhosa tribe dominate the upper hierarchy of central government as well as in provincial government. The concept of Black Empowerment is turning out to be a way of getting super rich quickly for a handful of blacks, while the White man on the street is forced by the "guidelines" to share his little business with black partners who often is unable to contribute a bean towards the future of the enterprise. A white Afrikaner cannot buy a filling station, for example, without a black partner, whereas a Indian from London, who recently arrived in this country, may do so. The oil companies would otherwise not replenish the depot's storage tanks.

A black person from Tanzania is employed ahead of a white Afrikaner on the grounds of transformation. When I called him an immigrant, he retorted that he was an African, I, a Boer, was the immigrant.

Transformation means 'changing the colour of the demographic landscape from white to black'. That is blatant discrimination and ethnic cleansing, justified by the concept of "the injustices suffered by the black majority during colonial rule".

The concept of apartheid existed throughout the African colonies and the Afrikaners now seem to have to bear the guilt of the colonial powers who imposed the policy of racial segregation over the centuries.

Q: What future do you see for RSA? Do you see civil wars and/or expulsion of Whites, or do you believe the country will see multi-racial harmony where Blacks and Whites can live and prosper together in peace.

A: A massive reservoir of goodwill exists between South Africans of all colours and creeds. But that reservoir is getting smaller by the day. People only fight civil wars when they have nothing to lose. Due to discriminatory measures, poverty is creeping up on Afrikaners and a few thousand of them have already crossed that threshold. They will be easy meat for activists.

Afrikaners have lost all control over their culture and their schools. Strangers who do not speak their language are now deciding on the curricula of the few remaining Afrikaans schools. Prior to 1994 there were more than 2,700 such schools, while today, only eleven years later, there are less than 300 left. Unless Afrikaners soon deal with that scenario in an organised manner by means of a statutary Afrikaner Council (similar to the Jewish Board of Deputies) so as to present a coherent and credible front to the government and the international community, splinter groups wil soon emerge with catastrophic results for peace in this country. South Africa's whites are born and bred in Africa and want to stay and make the country a success. But I'm afraid that the psyche of the African is the same in the Eastern, Southern, Northern and Western parts of Africa. The decay and neglect that has already set in during the eleven years of African rule is starkly visible in every walk of life, in every town, in every government department and in business. I regret to say that I see no prospect for that process of decay to stop. The same applies to the decay in relationships between ethnic groups.

Q: What are the main problems facing Afrikaners and all other South Africans today?

A: Representivity. Participatory democracy. Unemployent. Poor economic growth. Cultural chauvinism expressed as self-assertion. But the biggest single problem is crime. Nobody is safe anymore. The liberal constitution that ensures even criminal constitutional rights sent the wrong signal that crime actually pays. The rampant replacement of professional white policement by affirmative action applicants has just about destroyed the entire police system.

Q: What have been the successes and failures of the ANC so far?

The ANC's biggest success thus far is to shed the communist economic doctrine in favor of a free market economy. Cynics, however, claim that this was inevitable - otherwise how could the twenty thousand new black millionaires keep their largesse? Their biggest failure is to win over the hearts and minds of the white community, addressing the AIDS epidemic, and combating crime.

David Storobin is a New York lawyer who received Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Rutgers University School of Law. His Master's Thesis (M.A. - Comparative Politics) deals with the historical causes for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. He is also currently on the Board of Directors of the Ibn Khaldun Center for International Research (www.centroik.ufm.edu.gt) at the University of Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He's been interviewed on radio and cited in books as a political expert.

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We must delve deeper into new wave of Afrikaner siege mentality

Some vitriolic nonsense on how the ANC indulged the Freedom Front by setting up of a Volkstaat Council.

We must delve deeper into new wave of Afrikaner siege mentality Sunday Times Editor, Mondli Makhanya. 25 February 2007

COMMENT ON THIS: tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at: 33971

I remember attending a Freedom Front congress about 10 years ago and listening to speakers lament the lot of the Afrikaner in the new South Africa.

The words hulle (them) and ons (us) came up a lot during animated speeches about the future of the Afrikaner. Uncertainty reigned in the community, which had lost power after 40 years of rule. Some of the debates taking place within Afrikanerdom were about establishing a system of limited self-rule within the republic.

As part of the pre-election settlement, the ANC had agreed to the setting up of a Volkstaat Council, which would look into the feasibility of such an Afrikaner homeland.

After his inauguration as President, Nelson Mandela had graciously given the Volkstaat Council a generous budget and offices where they could draw maps, use calculators and write their dreams into fancy computers. They travelled widely and studied models of self-governance elsewhere in the world. In the end, they came up with a squiggly, snaking and patchy map of a homeland that stretched from one end of the country to the other.

They handed their report to Mandela, who congratulated them on their diligent work, and then suggested a referendum among Afrikaners on whether they would like to live in such a place.

They have not been heard of since.

One would have thought that this was the end of Afrikaner nationalism, save for a few Boeremag madcaps here and there. Well, that was the case for a while. And then, in the past two years, there has suddenly been a surge in tribal thinking among Afrikaners.

What is bothersome about this wave of mobilisation is that — unlike the Volkstaat types or the Boeremag lunatics — it is quite mainstream. If media coverage and anecdotal tales are anything to go by, there is a strong feeling of victimisation and a sense that it is time to fight back against something.

It leaves me wondering: “What did I miss?” Did something recently happen that resulted in a reduction of the status of Afrikaners? Was there a pronouncement that said Afrikaners were henceforth to be regarded as lesser South Africans than others? Was there an edict that reduced their rights?

If any of these events did happen, then I must apologise for having been fast asleep while a dastardly act was being committed against our fellow citizens.

But this thing happening out there, as with any form of ethnic mobilisation, is cause for concern.

As much as we would like to dismiss the rallying around the Koos de la Rey song as just another passing phenomenon, it is not a cultural fad that will fade away to the fringes of society, like hippiedom and womb-worship.

I have read the lyrics of the song and they are quite ... well ... “struggle” orientated. We have all seen the reaction of the crowds when the song gets played at cultural festivals and at sporting events. It has clearly struck a chord among a generation who feel they have been hard done by in the democratic South Africa.

Why they feel this way is a great mystery to me. The new South Africa has been good for Afrikaners, better than apartheid South Africa in many respects.

Their language is no longer regarded as the language of the oppressor and is jealously protected by those who once took to the streets to reject it.

In both the public and the private sectors it enjoys a status far above that of the other official languages, other than English. It is thriving in the print and electronic media and its literature is in bloom.

In business, Afrikaners have done well. Freed from the bondage of the civil service, they have transformed themselves into great entrepreneurs.

Afrikaner symbols still dominate our urban landscapes and Afrikaner sportsmen are everybody’s heroes nowadays.

One could go on and on.

Ten years after that FF congress, one would have thought that the hulle and ons issues would have been worked out of our system.

But these are just the opinions of a lowly newspaperman. Perhaps wiser counsel would advise better.

I suspect, however, that wiser counsel would probably tell the newspaperman that what is incensing Afrikaners is the removal of Voortrekker and National Party names from street signs and city billboards. To them, this is the ultimate message of defeat.

But this is very odd, as name changes were bound to happen — and the only surprise is that it took so long.

Wiser counsel would also talk of how crime is affecting this community.

Then again, crime is not the exclusive preserve of any one group. And if anyone could lay claim to being the worst victims of the crime wave, it would be the black working class.

Then wise counsel would speak of the encroachment of English into Afrikaans life. Even here Afrikaners are not alone. Speakers of other African languages are equally resentful of the weed-like invasion of English.

Wise counsel would speak then of how employment equity has disadvantaged Afrikaner youths. Well, if you look at the reality on the ground, you will see a lot more black graduates walking the streets, suffering a worse fate than any Afrikaners would suffer.

Appealing to the Afrikaner’s sense of logic, in isolation, is unfortunately not going to help stop this retreat into a laager. We all need to delve deeper into what lies behind this siege mentality. And why now?

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Volkstaat in the Western Cape

Here is another map for a volkstaat, form African Crisis. This one was chosen by the author for strategic reasons. Every province but the Eastern Cape and KZN has now featured on a volkstaat map.

S.Africa: My Maps for a White Homeland In my previous post I mentioned the L-shaped piece of terrain which I thought whites could seize in the Cape. It is a small portion of the Cape. But it would be more than large enough to house a population of many millions of whites if need be. I thought what the heck, let me scan a map and draw the borders based on natural features - mountains and rivers which are nice and defensible and which would be an attacker's nightmare. This is pretty much in line with the sort of area I envisaged when I wrote my book. The map below is the small version of it so that you can see at a glance that I am referring to the very southern tip of S.Africa. The border I envisage as a minimum is the one drawn in red. As you can see it would cover the northern tips of ranges of mountains. Very defensible. The borders might be a bit long, but I think it would be very doable because many things in the Cape favour us. Then there's the question of Port Elizabeth. The blue line is an alternate border suggestion, which seizes some mountains and a river which runs to the north of Port Elizabeth which would give us a 2nd city - and a 3rd port! [2 Photos] S.Africa: My Maps for a White Homeland I thought I'd put up this huge, close-up version of the same map so you can see all the towns, rivers, roads and features of our country!! I was not too steady with my mouse so the border is a bit squiggly. For example I see Lambert's bay falls outside our northern boundary. We'll have to change it to include Lambert's bay dammit! I forgot... our country would include the Koeberg Nuclear power station! You will see it also includes some nice railway lines which run north along the west coast, and east along the southern coast. As you can see, our country doesn't have any of those rubbish ANC names. All the names have been changed by our parliament in Cape Town back to what they were! I hope the spooks show my map to President Mbeki when next National Intelligence briefs him! Hehehe. Jan

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