The South African town with its own public holidays

In the dry landscape of South Africa’s Karoo region, there is a town that operates differently from the rest of the country, boasting its own public holidays and even its own currency.

The Afrikaner-only town of Orania in the Northern Cape is home to over 3,000 residents and is growing relatively quickly. 

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 Orania CEO Joost Strydom.

This means that every last bit of work, from landscapers to teachers, is done by Afrikaners.

Central to its cultural self-determination mission is observing its own public holidays, not following the 12 that the rest of South Africa observes annually.

Instead, the town largely retains holidays rooted in Afrikaner history, many of which originate from the apartheid era and earlier. 

One of the most significant of these is Geloftedag (Day of the Vow), celebrated on 16 December. 

On this day, locals dress in traditional clothing and attend church services to commemorate the 1838 Battle of Blood River, where 470 Afrikaners defeated an estimated 15,000 Zulu warriors.

Below is a list of public holidays observed in Orania:

These observances reflect Orania’s emphasis on Afrikaner heritage and cultural preservation, rather than integration into a broader South African society.

History of the town

The South African government originally established the town in the late 1960s and early 1970s to accommodate engineers and workers involved in the Orange River Project (ORP), an initiative to harness the Orange River for agricultural development in the arid Karoo. 

The project included the construction of major dams—later renamed Gariep and Vanderkloof—but it was never fully completed. 

After the 1966 assassination of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, government focus shifted to Angola, and attempts to repurpose the town failed. 

Eventually, it was sold to a local sheep farmer.

The idea of Orania as a self-governing Afrikaner homeland, however, predates the town itself, with roots tracing back to 1952. 

Orania CEO Joost Strydom said that Afrikaner influence in South Africa was being maintained at the cost of the majority population, leading to growing concerns about the long-term viability of such a system.

The idea that Afrikaners should concentrate in a limited region of South Africa was first circulated by the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs in 1966.

Some Afrikaners began advocating for a homeland to preserve their language and culture, fearing their diminishing influence in a changing South Africa. 

This led to the formation of the Orania Movement in 1988, which united various groups supporting the creation of an exclusively Afrikaner region. 

In 1991, despite not making the highest offer, the group succeeded in purchasing the property that would become Orania.

Orania and its residents contribute millions of rands in taxes to the South African government each year through company tax, personal income tax, VAT, and other levies.

However, the town, through its own fruition, receives very little in return in terms of government services.

The town is governed by the Orania Representative Council (ORC), which essentially functions as a local municipal authority within the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality.

Orania acts as its own local government, a status rooted in a unique historical arrangement with the state.

For nine years prior to the formalisation of South Africa’s new municipal system in 2000, Orania independently delivered its own services.

When the new system was implemented, the ORC was the only representative council that was not dissolved, preserving the town’s self-governance.