The Volkstaat Council has concluded that its dream is not practicable, reports Jan Taljaard
After 44 council meetings, 60 committee meetings and more than R3-million in salaries for its 20 members, the Volkstaat Council (VC) has abandoned the idea of an Afrikaner homeland — for the time being.
The VC, a council of rightwingers investigating possibilities for the creation of a Volkstaat with the blessing of government, has instead come up with a “package deal” consisting of a so-called “deelstaat” in the Pretoria area, the creation of cultural Citizens’ Councils and “economic development sub-regions”.
This much is apparent from an executive summary of the VC’s long-awaited report expected to be released this
The VC executive came to the conclusion that there is no “exclusive, dogmatic approach that will do justice to the variety of problems and proposed solutions”.
Added to these problems, the council is apparently also divided on whether to take the staat to the volk by establishing some kind of autonomous region in the Pretoria area, or take the volk to the staat by creating such a region around the Orania settlement in the North-West province.
The establishment of any volkstaat has, however, become increasingly unlikely. The executive summary bluntly admits that “the longer the council investigated possibilities in this regard, the more it came under the impression that this ideal is not immediately attainable”.
Cited as reasons for the impression are the demographic realities of South Africa and a current lack of international support.
Until such time as international support and a “growing disenchantment” among Afrikaners are such that a volkstaat can be created, the VC has proposed a package deal “to ensure that a process for the peaceful realisation of the ideal can be set in motion”.
To this end the VC will propose the “federalisation of the Constitution” and, more specifically, will propose to the Constitutional Assembly that an area around Pretoria become a federal region, the so “deelstaat”.
The summary states that an area around Pretoria has been identified as being dominated by a majority of Afrikaners. While the summary does not explain on what grounds the area was identified as such, it probably used an earlier report by VC member and architect Koos Reynecke as its guideline.
While much work had obviously gone into the report, Reynecke will, among other things, probably be faulted on the way he cuts traditional black areas from the “white” parts of town, perhaps conveniently forgetting that they are all part of the same economic unit.
The executive summary nevertheless admits that this area is surrounded by what it calls “a high density of non-Afrikaners”. (Read: Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Atteridgeville, Soweto).
Added to this, the VC also admits that the majority of Afrikaners do not live in the earmarked area and that the area is therefore not the sole solution.
In an attempt to provide a solution to the above problems, the VC proposes that apart from the Pretoria deelstaat, other autonomous areas should be established. The areas should be identified according to the criteria of a high concentration of Afrikaners and a low concentration on “non Afrikaners”, with the idea that these areas stay part of their respective provinces but at the same time be treated as “economical development sub-regions”.
While it is admitted that Afrikaners do not constitute a majority in any of these envisaged sub-regions, the VC proposes that “victims of affirmative action” be resettled in the areas to build up the concentration of
It is furthermore proposed that the fact that Afrikaners are not in the majority in these areas can be countered by a so-called floating vote “in order to empower the Afrikaner in these areas”. — Diginews
Also among a list of the problems set out by the VC is the fact that “in spite of certain concentrations, the Afrikaner is still dispersed across South Africa”. But for this problem the VC also has a solution:
Citizen’s Councils should be established in the remaining part of the country that will serve as “statutory, cultural bodies”. It is proposed that such a council be established once 3 000 Afrikaners in a certain area register voluntarily. These councils will have no political powers but will only serve as cultural bodies.
Small comfort for those wanting a volkstaat in the Northwest is that the VC does not envisage any political empowerment for such an autonomous area. Afrikaner self-determination should in the short term be realised by the establishment of the deelstaat and other proposed councils and regions, the summary says.
On the face of it, the report may serve more to muddy the volkstaat issue than in providing any real solutions. The VC nevertheless proposes that it should be seen as a base document for further discussions with all Afrikaners, whether they are from “conservative calvinist” or “liberal cosmopolitan” schools.
In the light of recent indications that the National Party and Freedom Front may be eyeing each other warily with a view to possible co-operation in future, this may make for very interesting discussions indeed.