Vereniging van Oranjewerkers
Vereniging van Oranjewerkers ("Organization of Orange Workers", sometimes shortened to simply Oranjewerkers, "Orange Workers") is a South African white separatist political movement that seeks a homeland for Afrikaners.
Development
Formed in 1980 by Wally Grant, H. F. Verwoerd junior (the son of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd), Carel Boshoff and C. J. Joost, the group bemoaned the over-reliance of South Africa on a black workforce and sought to set up Oranjegroeipunte (Orange growth points) where the group would buy up land to settle unemployed white people on. Such a scheme was set up in Morgenzon.[1] Alongside this they also developed the plan of bolwerke ('bastions'), or privately owned farms whose landowners would undertake to stop utilising black labour.[1]
Eschewing the party political route, the Oranjewerkers became more of a research group, undertaking a series of studies of the demographics of the country. Leading member Hercules Booysen termed their mission as dinamiese-konserwatisme, seeking newer ways to implement the old ideas of apartheid and the creation of a Volkstaat.[2] Similar plans for redesigning the map of South Africa have been suggested by the group from time to time.
In fiction
The organisation features prominently in Larry Bond's tale of a fictionalised Cold War conflict in South Africa, Vortex. By the novel's conclusion, they have succeeded in reaching their goal for an autonomous Afrikaner state under a post-apartheid government.
See also
References
- ^ a b Du Toit, Brian M. (1991). "The Far Right in Current South African Politics". The Journal of Modern African Studies. Cambridge University Press. 29 (4): 627–67. ISSN 1469-7777. JSTOR 161141. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00005693 – via JSTOR. (Registration required (help)).
- ^ du Toit, 'The Far Right in South Africa', p. 648