Isn’t this a throwback to apartheid?
No, it’s quite the opposite.
In effect you’re calling for Afrikaner homelands, aren’t you?
No, we just want the government to realise the promise of cultural autonomy in the constitution.
Basically, you’re calling for autonomous, geographical zones for Afrikaners?
We’re asking for what is in the constitution, the right to internal self-determination within a territorial entity.
More Oranias?
We’re not necessarily talking about more Oranias.
What you’re calling for is very similar to what they have in Orania, isn’t it?
That is one of the points, yes.
So those who don’t satisfy your definition of an Afrikaner wouldn’t be allowed in your zone?
It is a free country, people can move where they want.
If it’s a constitutional right why haven’t you gone to the Constitutional Court to affirm it?
The task of the Constitutional Court is to adjudicate on legal matters, this is a political matter so there must be a political road...
Putting it to the voters?
We think we can achieve much more outside the political sphere. We’re busy with Afrikaans schools, neighbourhood watches, helping different communities, also black communities, with service delivery...
Why do you need cultural zones?
Almost all the black communities have cultural zones, we just want the same.
Would the rights of black people in your cultural zones be affected?
They’d be entitled to all the rights in the constitution.
What form would Afrikaner autonomy in these zones take?
We’re not talking about demarcated zones with borders and fences and that kind of nonsense. We’re talking about self-defined communities exercising their right to mother tongue education.
Is that your problem? You want Afrikaners to go to white schools?
No, Afrikaans schools. There’s no white school in the country.
Is that what you want?
We want mother-tongue education.
Will you pay for these schools?
No, there’s a recognition in the constitution for public school mother-tongue education. And we don’t want it on the basis of race, we want it on the basis of language and culture. Other communities are welcome to enrol their children if they are willing to study in Afrikaans. Research shows the best education for a child is mother-tongue education.
How will having your own cultural zones help you achieve this?
We’re saying there are Afrikaners who want the rights contained in the constitution. In areas where there are mother-tongue Afrikaans schools we don’t want the government trying to centralise control over them or scale down mother-tongue education.
Your declaration complains about Afrikaners being dominated by the demographic majority. Isn’t majority rule what we all signed up for 30 years ago?
We signed up for democracy, we didn’t sign up for the continuation of a racial system, 116 race laws against 4.6% of the population (white school kids).
Isn’t that what elections are for?
Of course, political parties have a role to change that, but not only political parties. Before 1994 it was not only political parties that resisted the unfairness of the system. It is our democratic right as a cultural group to make our views clear. It’s called democracy. We signed up for that.
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