8 Augustus 2024
Feeling superblessed with gratitude, to have found a town once again – after a very long time – worthy to write about…
Over recent years, I have not felt inspired to write about our once, alluring towns as I was accustomed to in the past. I don’t believe I have to explain, but for those readers who do not live in South Africa, I shall attempt to do so, without sounding pessimistic.
Our – once pristine towns, in wonderful working order – is now derelict! I don’t know how to make this statement even slightly more positive, as I have been a sad witness to this rapid decline. It saddens me to write this paragraph as some of you know, my greatest aim is to create positivity.
I used to look forward to our travels, but nowadays this is very much influenced by where we need to travel. We found that the most run-down towns are most definitely the ones we travel to for work in the North.
At this point, we look forward to and are open to contract work closer to home. My husband’s CV is updated and on his CV, I have enclosed two articles written over the years with many photos of previous work contracts.
On Sunday, we left our beautiful home, Lochloerie Farm, in the Garden Route.
A 7-hour drive and we were in Hopetown, where we were to stay for the next three nights. In my humble opinion, and meaning no disrespect for the humans living there, it is with a sad heart that I see no hope for Hopetown anymore.
My husband’s worksite was only half an hour from the controversial town, Orania, and we found the two hours required for driving and surveying it.
On our way, we spoke to our – close enough for family – friends, the Mollers. They lived in Orania in the former years – with their four children – from 1992 – 1998, and were teachers in the first school. Our friends, the brothers Christo, and Michael told us that they assisted in planting the first nut trees. They told us where to drive to see the trees; they were huge by this time. They also helped with the building of the town’s swimming pool.
My heart soared with surprise as we drove into this super clean town and saw many people who acknowledged us with a friendly wave and it was noticeable that they loved their jobs and safe surroundings.
Orania is an Afrikaner nationalist town in South Africa, founded by Afrikaners in 1991. It was meant to be a safe haven for Afrikaners. They are the ethnic group descended from the Europeans who colonized South Africa. They speak their own language, Afrikaans.
Orania is located along the Orange River in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape province. The town is split in two halves by the R369 road.
A monument of a koeksister in the Afrikaner community alludes to the Afrikaner tradition of baking them to raise funds for the building of churches and schools. This town is the epitome of a healthy and growing community. I spoke to our lovely waitress who grew up in Orania, and who has two little ones of her own now. She is very happy and stress-free. Safety is definitely a plus as the kids can play freely without having to watch out for crime. Another lady, who was cleaning the toilet area said, women and children can walk around at night, feeling secure. She moved from the Gauteng area and was living there for two years. She said she was joyously working as a cleaning lady and would not want to ever move away.
To live here the requirements are: one has to be White Afrikaans, be a Calvinist Christian, have a clean criminal record, and speak Afrikaans only, inside the enclave. Afrikaans is the only language tolerated inside Orania.
This town has its own local currency, the Ora, first issued in April 2004.
Orania’s name means Sunrise; Rising.
As we entered, we followed directions to Monument Hill, which overlooks much of the town.
Here we found a collection of statues abandoned after the end of apartheid by many municipalities, on display. Bronze busts of former leaders of South Africa: Paul Kruger, JBM Hertzog, DF Malan, JG Strydom, Hendrik Verwoerd, and more, are added as they become available. I believe that the families of these important Afrikaner leaders are proud that Orania can preserve them, especially nowadays, when Afrikaner history is almost criminalized.
Notwithstanding our current criminal government, South Africa was thriving though!
Everything worked!
We are nearing the same years with anti-apartheid and what has become of the Railway, Airways, Escom, Post Office, schools, and hospitals. Our economy is looking bleak, to say the least.
We had apartheid for 40 years, and in my own opinion, it was most definitely not right! But it is part of our history and although I, and most others are grateful for the ending of apartheid, I think it is safe to say that we only stepped over to even more incredulous inequality!
At this point I need to add my political disclosure: I most definitely do not see myself as a racist. I grew up in a multiracial community in Cape Town. For me, it has never been about colour, simply being a good human.
As I, generally, look the part, I can somehow identify with the white Afrikaner people.
Our opinion on the overly debated Orania, is that it is just marvellous to see a well-functioning town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, again. Orania as a community is most definitely growing, and growing fast. From a mere 13 inhabitants in 1991 until now around 2 800.
In general, I love supporting charity shops and have been for more than a decade. I love to feel that I am part of the solution by not buying from chain stores. For the duration of my swift shopping in Orania’s charity shop, I listened in awe to their very own radio station. I heard an announcement that they were going to have a meeting for some new challenges and invited the community to be a part of this. How wonderful to feel part of a rising community. It warmed my heart!
The following was taken from their website: “We will continue to grow it (Orania) both in population and service delivery. Our basic services are built with our funds, we receive nothing back on the municipal level from the government, but we do pay taxes.”
Orania is for Afrikaners who share the same values and seek a safe haven from South Africa’s crime-ridden townships. Our country has one of the highest crime rates in the world. I love the sheer determination of this Afrikaner culture, firstly to know what they want and then to implement and engineer it as peacefully as possible. For us to see that this could be done, more than effectively, gave us new hope for the future. As I researched Orania, I found a detailed and well-thought-out town plan of 182 pages, showing just what can be achieved when like-minded people brainstorm together.
Furthermore, Orania was built on the principles of self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. Establishing itself in the semi-arid Northern Cape, Orania was built on the bones of an abandoned construction town, with limited infrastructure or funding.
The town is privately owned. Ownership of plots and houses is in the form of shares in the company, in terms of a share block scheme. It was established in 1991 as an “Afrikaner-only” settlement.
Although the Orania Movement strives for (more) local autonomy its structural authority is restricted to that of a local council, which falls outside the constitutional and statutory provisions provided for by the Constitution and statutory law.
All jobs, from management to manual labour, are done by Afrikaners; non-Afrikaner people are not allowed to live or work there.
A small, unassuming house was visited in 1995 by Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president. He came to drink tea with Hendrick Verwoerd’s widow, tirelessly seeking to reconcile a bruised and divided South Africa. What a beautiful human… which brings me to this question…
Is all this controversy surrounding Orania really necessary?
They are an Afrikaans culture and the Afrikaners as a people who wish to exclusively preserve their language and identity.
There are thousands of black settlements everywhere. I know, as we travel extensively throughout our country.
Orania’s people say they are not – true to popular belief – racist: they simply want to live among themselves, in security, far from the decadence of the rest of the country, which has power cuts, administrative failures, unprecedented violence and glaring inequalities.
“We also want to retain our own identity. Now, to retain one’s identity is not a racist impulse. We wanted to retain our identity against the English or the British imperialism also and they are even whiter….”
Orania’s motto is ‘Working for freedom’. “By rolling up our sleeves and getting down to work we are building our own future”.
The message of the flag is that with steadfastness, and with faith, self-determination and peace, the people of Orania can take their first steps towards their own freedom.
“It’s the first time in history that a country has been established without a war.” Maybe this should be written down in history.
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.
Orania has a healthy population growth, little to no crime, happy people, high trusting society, beautiful-looking town and growing structure despite the harsh environment, etc.
The people of Orania are not bothering anybody. It is an Afrikaner town that wants to protect its culture, history, religion and values.
Blacks in Africa are split among many tribes and have their own communities, most of these settlements have a chief in charge. How is this different?
Look at Orania and then look at South Africa!
I am superblessed with gratitude to have had a quick visit to Orania!