[imagesource:wikimediacommons]
Despite nearly 30 years of democracy, some people have really struggled to let go of the Apartheid era’s Group Areas Act, which is how you end up in a place like Orania.
Although, the people in the Afrikaner enclave like to say that the town is supposedly an exercise in “cultural self-determination” and not racist white supremacist ideals meant to separate white folks from black folks.
There is reason to believe, though, that some of the okes setting up homes and shops in the Northern Cape town are (or were once) steeped in the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), which represented a sect of racist Afrikaners on the far right who demanded an independent “Volkstaat” (state) in the new political order, notes politics student Ayanda Zulu via IOL.
The ideas from this political faction are deeply rooted in extremist Afrikaner nationalism and herrenvolkism (master-race ideology), along with the fear of being led by what they termed a black “communist” government.
While it is possible that these alarming apartheid-inspired aspects remain hidden under the surface, the town has made a point of defending itself by presenting as some humanistic project aimed to preserve culture and heritage.
Just recently, videos posted on the TikTok page @newsnexussa revealed an inside look at the white-only town, showing the perfectly manicured suburbs, white walls and green lawns, as if it’s a utopia in our dishevelled country:
Watch on TikTok
Briefly reported:
The video gathered over 114 000 views on TikTok, and hundreds of South Africans marvelled at the quaint area. Citizens of different races said in the comments section that they wished they lived in a town like Orania, where service delivery was prioritised. Some people mentioned that it was too secluded and removed from the realities of life.
As peaceful and functional as that all looks, let’s not forget that Orania has been rightly criticised for romanticising an apartheid era of segregation, undermining the constitutional aim of a racially integrated society.
