Pretoria -
There has been an overwhelming response on social media both in favour of and against Front Nasionaal’s plan to have areas that will be exclusively for Afrikaners in Pretoria.
Front Nasionaal, a newly formed political party which claims to represent cultural and ethnic Afrikaner communities in South Africa, will on Friday hold a march for self-determination.
The march was set to start at 10am at the Pretoria Art Museum on the intersection of Francis Baard and Wessels streets in Arcadia Park.
They were then to make their way to the Union Buildings.
Wessel Basson, Front Nasionaal’s Gauteng leader, said other Afrikaner groups would be joining them, including the Boere Afrikaner Volksraad.
“One thing I must emphasise is that no uniforms will be allowed. If the AWB come, they will not be allowed to wear their uniforms. This is not a military action. It is a peaceful action. We will not allow any of that,” he said.
He said he applied for 500 people to attend the march, but wasn’t sure how many people would be there.
Front Nasionaal has come up with a plan to contest for wards in predominantly local Afrikaans communities, such as Centurion and Pretoria Moot, and turn these into areas for people who identify themselves as Afrikaner under Section 235 of the South African Constitution.
This section allows for South African people as a whole self-determination and encourages the recognition of the notion of the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage within a territorial entity in the Republic.
Three Front Nasionaal leaders, Francois Cloete, Wessel Basson and Marius Coertze, on Wednesday handed over a memorandum to the offices of Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and Gauteng Premier David Makhura signalling their intention to “establish independent Afrikaner cultural areas and independent self-governing Afrikaner cantons after the municipal elections in 2016”.
Cloete said their ultimate goal was to have an independent Afrikaner country within the borders of South Africa, possibly with its own currency.
Ramokgopa in the monthly council meeting on Thursday, acknowledged receipt of the memorandum.
“We believe that we have created an open and free society and institutions where every South African can practise their legitimate cultural and religious rights and to preserve and celebrate cultural diversity without demanding their own developments for self-exclusion,” Ramokgopa said.
“It is my responsibility as the mayor of our beautiful city to continue to call upon the Afrikaner community and other minority groups to seize the opportunity and walk with us as we rebuild the capital city for every South African, black, white, Indian and coloured.”
One reader responded to Thursday’s front page article on Front Nasionaal saying she was shocked by the idea. “I’m a white African, living in Pretoria, in the Moot. I am utterly disgusted that a group such as the Front Nasionaal political party approaches government, claiming to act on behalf of South Africans, black, white, Afrikaans, English, Zulu or Xhosa. And that they want to take over our area, with their political agenda,” the reader wrote.
She said there was no way that she would raise her child according to Afrikaans culture which, she said, had nothing to be proud of.
Pretoria News