Inside the South African Afrikaner town with its own currency

On a rocky, arid hill in the blistering Karoo sun overlooking the town of Orania stands a statue of a young boy rolling up his sleeves.

It is placed in front of a semi-circle of busts of former Afrikaner leaders, which were removed from other parts of South Africa.

Monument Hill, the location of these figures, is seen as a sacrosanct place for the over 3,000 Afrikaner residents of the town, a testament to their vision.

The young boy, dubbed “the little giant”, is the symbol of Orania. The little giant is rolling up his sleeves to build, with the mantra that no one will come and save and solve their problems for them.

“We have to roll up our sleeves and build our future ourselves,” said Joost Strydom, CEO of the Orania movement. “This is what everything we do is all about,” he added.

Orania is a town born from a movement for a self-governing community for Afrikaners, focused on cultural and language preservation and self-determination.

The town is admittedly controversial in contemporary South Africa, given the country’s painful past of systemic racial injustice.

Some critics have argued that it is a “continuation of apartheid” by excluding specific demographics and “preserving segregation under cultural pretenses.”

Additionally, the old busts of figures like Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster, and D.F. Malan, which are in a half circle behind the ‘little giant’ bust, are seen by some as a symbol of “nostalgia for apartheid.”

They contend this perpetuates division, hindering national reconciliation and unity in post-apartheid South Africa.

However, upon visiting the town, Orania residents and leaders insist these “are grave misconceptions.”

Orania’s leadership resents its description as a “whites-only” enclave, which some South Africans associate with the town because only approved Afrikaners can take up residency.

Instead, they say that they are part of a project which has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Afrikaner culture.

While anyone, regardless of race or culture, can visit the town, only approved Christian Afrikaners who support the town’s vision can take up residency.

They say that this is because central to their vision is the “preservation and development of Afrikaner culture and the Afrikaans language.”

This includes creating an environment where the Afrikaner culture is actively lived out and dominant, “which is enshrined in the constitution, granting the right to cultural self-determination,” said Strydom.

Afrikaner leaders

Speaking about the busts of the former Afrikaner leaders, Strydom said that “they are not participating in politics anymore; they are all dead. They are part of our history, and that’s an indisputable fact.”

“No one’s history is only bad, and no one’s history is only good. However, they exist in a certain context. Thus, they are behind the little giant in the back, so they cannot see over the edge of the horizon facing Orania,” he added.

Leadership and locals argue that they are one of the few communities in South Africa not reaping the rewards of exploitative labour practices entrenched through systems like apartheid.

“Orania is the most fundamental shift of any community in South Africa. Refusing economic prosperity of cheap exploitative labour. It’s a reformative practice,” said Strydom.

Orania emphasises that Afrikaners must do all the work within the town, regardless of the nature of the work.

He said that by doing their own labor, “we are not misusing or exploiting anyone to build our future,” like previous systems did.

Brief history

Orania was initially built by the former South African government in the late 1960s and early 1970s to house engineers and workers involved in the Orange River Project (ORP).

The Orange River Project was an initiative to harness the Orange River for agriculture in the arid Karoo region.

The project included major dams, later renamed Gariep and Vanderkloof, but was never fully completed.

Following former prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd’s assassination in 1966, priorities shifted to Angola, and the town was later sold to a local sheep farmer after government efforts to repurpose it failed.

The concept of Orania as a self-governing Afrikaner homeland predates the town, with origins traced back to 1952.

The idea gained momentum in the 1970s with the belief that the apartheid system was unsustainable.

Strydom said many believed in a shift from the prevailing Afrikaner in South Africa at the expense of the majority population.

With it came the idea to create a designated Afrikaner homeland for language and culture preservation.

The Orania Movement was formally founded in 1988, consolidating various groups advocating for an exclusively Afrikaner region.

Despite not being the highest bidder, in 1991, the property for Orania was purchased.

How it operates

Oranians and their businesses pay millions in taxes to the South African government annually through company, personal income, VAT and other taxes.

However, “Orania gets practically nothing in terms of services from the state,” said Tony Coreia, chairman of the Orania Chamber of Commerce.

“Everything that we do is privately funded. Every rand and Ora,” he said, referring to the town’s own currency.

The Orania Representative Council (ORC) is the local municipal council that governs the town in the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality.

The town functions as its own local government, a status achieved through a complex history involving a settlement with the state.

It stems partly from the fact that it independently delivered its own services for nine years before the formalisation of the new municipal system in South Africa in 2000.

During the implementation of a new municipal system post-democracy, the ORC was the only representative council that was not abolished.

The governance structure involves different land-owning entities, resembling homeowner associations, which elect their own leadership.

The town operates under a shared block scheme, where shareholders elect a board of directors at an annual general meeting. This board then appoints the town council, which manages the day-to-day affairs.

Orania also has its own internal “process of law” department for dispute resolution and a system for granting the “right of residency” to new inhabitants who align with the community’s cultural and self-determination goals.

Service delivery and infrastructure

The town council manages service delivery in Orania and employs staff across various departments, including engineering and general maintenance.

These services, encompassing roads, sanitation, water, electricity, and public space upkeep, are primarily funded by local municipal taxes paid by residents. A key aspect is the pursuit of complete self-sufficiency.

For example, electricity is managed by a separate company in which the town council is a shareholder. Investments in a solar farm and battery system make Orania largely independent from Eskom.

There is 1.4 megawatt (MW) of ground-mounted solar panel capacity, while commercial properties and homes add at least another 600kW of rooftop solar generation,

The engineering department also manages water and sanitation internally. Water is pumped from the Orange River, purified, and distributed through a dual-line system that provides both potable and raw river water.

Sewage is treated at a facility built with a future population of 10,000 in mind.

Medical services are provided through private practices within Orania, including full-time doctors and emergency services, supplemented by visiting specialists and a helicopter landing pad for critical cases.

For security, Orania has its own “Safety Services,” which act as police, fire department, and emergency responders, supported by community volunteers.

Education is delivered through private schools that align with Orania’s cultural ethos. There are also tertiary and vocational training institutions focused on developing local skills.

Essentially, the residents and businesses within Orania directly fund a large portion of the town’s services and infrastructure development through investments, taxes, and fees for private services and institutions.

This model, where the private sector bears significant financial responsibility for the town’s development and well-being, is a defining characteristic of Orania’s economic and social structure.

Infrastructure development follows this model. Unlike other municipalities, Orania does not rely on state loans for infrastructure projects.

Instead, the growth of the town’s infrastructure, including water, sewage, electricity, and roads, is funded directly from the tax revenue and levies of its existing residents.

This necessitates careful financial management to balance current maintenance needs with the investment required for future expansion to accommodate a growing population.

The town council owns undeveloped land and generates revenue by developing new suburbs and selling shared blocks, further contributing to infrastructure funding.

Orania’s future

Looking forward, Orania plans to continue advocating for self-determination and the preservation of their cultural identity. They expect significant population growth, aiming for 10,000 residents.

They aspire to evolve into a “rural city” while pursuing greater levels of self-determination, potentially moving towards judicial independence.

A key long-term ambition is to help the Afrikaner culture and language flourish, including developing Afrikaans for use in higher education and various professional fields.

Economically, they intend to expand their existing sectors, particularly manufacturing for export, to enhance their sustainability.