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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfrikaner leaders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orania emphasises that Afrikaners must do all the work within the town, regardless of the nature of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that by doing their own labor, “we are not misusing or exploiting anyone to build our future,” like previous systems did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Orange River Project was an initiative to harness the Orange River for agriculture in the arid Karoo region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project included major dams, later renamed Gariep and Vanderkloof, but was never fully completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following former prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept of Orania as a self-governing Afrikaner homeland predates the town, with origins traced back to 1952.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea gained momentum in the 1970s with the belief that the apartheid system was unsustainable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Strydom said many believed in a shift from the prevailing Afrikaner in South Africa at the expense of the majority population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With it came the idea to create a designated Afrikaner homeland for language and culture preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Orania Movement was formally founded in 1988, consolidating various groups advocating for an exclusively Afrikaner region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite not being the highest bidder, in 1991, the property for Orania was purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oranians and their businesses pay millions in taxes to the South African government annually through company, personal income, VAT and other taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, “Orania gets practically nothing in terms of services from the state,” said Tony Coreia, chairman of the Orania Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Everything that we do is privately funded. Every rand and Ora,” he said, referring to the town’s own currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Orania Representative Council (ORC) is the local municipal council that governs the town in the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The town functions as its own local government, a status achieved through a complex history involving a settlement with the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the implementation of a new municipal system post-democracy, the ORC was the only representative council that was not abolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The governance structure involves different land-owning entities, resembling homeowner associations, which elect their own leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The town council manages service delivery in Orania and employs staff across various departments, including engineering and general maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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,<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sewage is treated at a facility built with a future population of 10,000 in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For security, Orania has its own “Safety Services,” which act as police, fire department, and emergency responders, supported by community volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Infrastructure development follows this model. Unlike other municipalities, Orania does not rely on state loans for infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This necessitates careful financial management to balance current maintenance needs with the investment required for future expansion to accommodate a growing population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The town council owns undeveloped land and generates revenue by developing new suburbs and selling shared blocks, further contributing to infrastructure funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They aspire to evolve into a “rural city” while pursuing greater levels of self-determination, potentially moving towards judicial independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economically, they intend to expand their existing sectors, particularly manufacturing for export, to enhance their sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BusinessTech visited Orania, a self-sufficient Afrikaner town focused on cultural preservation, independent governance, private infrastructure, self-reliance, and autonomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":815555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[21938,21937,21928,9486,21936,853],"class_list":["post-815485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-afrikaans","tag-afrikaner","tag-joost-strydom","tag-orania","tag-orania-movement","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815485"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815711,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815485\/revisions\/815711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Brief history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a>How it operates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nService delivery and infrastructure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a>Orania’s future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>