A line in the sand

"I see nothing wrong with apartheid". So says one of the residents of Orania - and he's clearly not in the minority. Indeed, the town was essentially founded in 1991 as a bastion of apartheid against the reality of twenty-first-century South Africa - it's for white Afrikaaners only.

The inhabitants - who are obliged to abide by draconian rules, including having to seek permission to receive visitors - talk of the town as a safe and secure environment. But they actually appear to live in a constant state of fear, adopting a ghetto mentality and particularly afraid of their culture being "diluted". Of course, that's just a thinly veiled fear of ethnic "dilution" and miscegenation, regardless of empty claims like "We are not against black people. We are for ourselves".

It's quite incredible that such places can still exist, but hopefully Orania's determined isolationism will end up starving it of oxygen.