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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ 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. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00005693. ISSN 1469-7777. JSTOR 161141 – via JSTOR. (registration required (help)).
- ^ du Toit, 'The Far Right in South Africa', p. 648