Pretoria -
Afrikaners want their own community which looks after itself in Pretoria, something along the lines of Kleinfontein and Orania.
This should happen as early as after the municipal elections next year, and the area would have its own schools and universities where children are taught in Afrikaans.
The statue of Paul Kruger at Church Square could also be moved there.
The areas that have been identified are those where many Afrikaans-speaking people live, such as Centurion and Pretoria Moot.
Orania in the Northern Cape and Kleinfontein in Gauteng were established by Afrikaners.
Only people who identify themselves as Afrikaners are welcome there.
And now the Front Nasionaal political party wants a similar Afrikaner cultural area to be established in Pretoria.
This demand is made in a memorandum accepted by Blessing Manale on behalf of City of Tshwane executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa on Wednesday morning.
Manale said he would give it to the mayor, and it would be acknowledged during the ordinary council sitting on Thursday.
Front Nasionaal leaders Francois Cloete, Wessel Basson and Marius Coertze delivered the memorandum to Ramokgopa’s offices in Centurion.
They said the move came at a time when the Afrikaans ethnic group was being targeted, and all they wanted to do was protect the Afrikaans-speaking population.
“We have a problem that Afrikaans schools or areas are being targeted. It seems like a concerted effort to target us,” said Basson, the party’s Gauteng North leader.
“A community must look after themselves; that’s what we believe in. Kleinfontein and Orania have more or less the same idea we have.”
In the memorandum, they stated that they were a registered political party acting on behalf of cultural and ethnic Afrikaner communities in South Africa.
“We write this letter to you regarding the next municipal elections to be held in 2016.
“We hereby give notice that we purport to establish independent Afrikaner cultural areas and independent self-governing Afrikaner cantons after the municipal election in 2016.
“We purport to do this in terms of the Constitution of South Africa and International Law pertaining to ethnic and cultural self-determination,” the memorandum read.
It was addressed to the offices of the mayor of Tshwane, as well as Gauteng Premier David Makhura.
Cloete said their plan was to win municipal wards in next year’s municipal election and consolidate them. Thereafter, the party would use Section 235 of the Constitution of South Africa, which provided for self-determination and territorial unity inside of the Republic.
In terms of the section in question, it provides for the right of the South African people as a whole to self-determination.
In addition, it 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 or in any other way, as determined by national legislation.
Cloete said their greatest vision was to have an independent country for Afrikaners within the borders of South Africa, possibly with its own currency. “What we are fighting for is not just for Afrikaners; it is for all ethnic groups. We want to build a model for other ethnic groups to follow,” Basson said.
He said the recent announcement by Stellenbosch University that English would be the primary medium of instruction was a sign that Afrikaans would slowly die if action wasn’t taken.
Cloete said areas in Tshwane that were already dominated by Afrikaners would be perfect targets.
He said this would allow for Afrikaners to have their own schools and universities where Afrikaans would be the only medium of instruction and they would have a space to live out their heritage.
Coertze said if this idea was implemented well, then there would be less conflict in the country.
“Afrikaner people should not feel threatened, unsafe or uncomfortable. There would be a lot more harmony in the country when people have safe havens,” Cloete added.
Basson said that Afrikaners saw Africa as their home and considered themselves to be white Africans.
Cloete even suggested the Paul Kruger statue in Church Square, which is vandalised from time to time, be moved to one of the Afrikaner wards where it would be safe.
The leaders wanted to make it clear that they did not want to exclude other cultural groups from living in certain areas, but they wanted these areas available to them to live out their heritage.
They also said they did not want to be violent in any way to achieve their proposal.
The same memorandum was also handed over to the office of the premier in Joburg on Thursday.
Front Nasionaal members, supported by other organisations, will tomorrow march from the Pretoria Art Museum to the Union Buildings to deliver another memorandum.
Pretoria News
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