Orania, Northern Cape

Province

Orania is a settlement in the South African province of North Cape. It is located in the desert Karoo region in the district of Pixley Ka Seme. According to the 2011 census were living at that time 892 people here. In this place are able to live since 1990 only Buren and people who identify with the Boers. Orania is understood as the nucleus of a new Afrikaner state in accordance with the people's state - ideal. The inhabitants to live and work as independently as possible and not, as usual let in South Africa, do manual work around of black workers.

Establishment and Status

In December 1990, about 40 Afrikaner families for about 1.4 million Rand bought the then dilapidated place, which consisted of 170 barracks that had once built the Water Board of the South African government for the workers of a dam. The surrounding area is approximately 3000 hectares in size and is also one of Orania. They were led by Carel Boshoff, a son of former Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. This happened a few months after the actual end of apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela. As a subject, the increase in crime in the rest of South Africa is given, which also led to murders of white farmers. In 2004, with the Ora Orania own currency out.

In the South African general election, 2009, the Vryheidsfront Plus in Orania scored 243 out of 279 votes, while the party nationally was only 0.83 %.

Orania is not an official community, but it is private land, the people living there. The administration of the estate is the responsibility of the corporation Vluyteskraal Aandeleblok. The cost of living is about twice as high as in the rest of South Africa.

The place is managed on a democratic basis. The shareholders elect annually a directorate of seven people and a president. This is currently (2012 ) Carel Boshoff, Jr., son of the founder of Orania. The Directorate functions as the City Council and served on the village manager who works as a city treasurer. 2012 is the Frans de Klerk.

2012 live 560 families in Orania. The place has the most advanced irrigation systems in the region, so that agriculture, such as the cultivation of Pekannussbäumen was possible. In addition, almost one hundred business units exist in Orania.

The Orania Beweging ( German: " Orania Movement" ), a foundation that is to proclaim the ideal of the Boer state from Orania and is responsible for the contact with visitors, prospects and journalists, is directed by Jaco Kleynhans. According to self- representation has the Orania Beweging around 3000 members and maintains contacts with a group of Xhosa in the Eastern Cape as well as regionalist movements in Europe. In South Tyrol, there is the group " Friends of the South Tyrolean Afrikaners - Amici del popolo sudtirolesi Afrikaners ", which supports the Orania project financially and morally.

The goal is the establishment of an autonomous region in which Boers are in the majority and in the can survive their cultural identity ( nation state ). This area should be between the Upper Karoo and the westerly Atlantic coast.

Movies

The German director Tobias Lindner turned the 2012 documentary Orania about the settlement and its people. The film was released in June 2013.