Volkstaat: Encyclopedia II - Volkstaat - Afrikaner reasons for wanting a Volkstaat

Volkstaat - Afrikaner reasons for wanting a Volkstaat

A number of factors have contributed to a feeling of estrangement experienced by some Afrikaners in South Africa; from their perspective these are:

Volkstaat - Lack of political power

The Afrikaners, who form a small minority group in South Africa (8% of total population 2001 est.),handed over their political power in South Africa during the 1994 democratic elections.

The lack of political power that ensued resulted in a strive for self reliance and self governance, due to the limited say that the Afrikaners have, as a collective group, in the basic South African governmental policies that influence their daily lives such as healthcare, education, security, taxes, governmental expenditure, economic models, etc.

Volkstaat - Culture and heritage

In 2002 a number of towns and cities with historic Afrikaans names dating back to Voortrekker times—such as Pietersburg and Potgietersrus—had their names changed, often in the face of popular opposition to the change. In the same year the government decided that state departments had to choose a single language for inter- and intra-departmental communication, effectively compelling public servants to communicate using English with one another.

Of the 31 universities in South Africa, five were historically Afrikaans (Free State, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Rand Afrikaans University and Stellenbosch). In mid 2002 the national Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, announced that Afrikaans medium universities must implement parallel teaching in English, despite a proposal by a government appointed commission that two Afrikaans universities should be retained to further Afrikaans as an academic language. According to the government’s language policy for higher education “the notion of Afrikaans universities runs counter to the end goal of a transformed higher education system".

Volkstaat - Crime

The expectation which many Afrikaners had in 1994 that crime—especially violent crime—would decrease has not materialised. Consistently high levels of violent crime (and the media coverage of it) have resulted in a significant increase in the public’s feelings of insecurity.

Among rural Afrikaners the violent attacks on farmers and their families (South African Farmer Murders) have contributed significantly to a hardening of attitudes. Between 1998 and 2001 there were some 3 500 recorded farm attacks in South Africa. The attacks have resulted in the murder of 541 farmers, their families or their workers. On average more than two farm attack related murders are committed every week.

Conservative Afrikaners largely interpret farm attacks as a racially inspired campaign to force them off their farms. In mid-2001 the Freedom Front appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission to place pressure on the South African government to do something about the murder of Afrikaner farmers, which “had taken on the shape of an ethnic massacre” Freedom Front leader, Pieter Mulder, claimed that most farm attacks seemed orchestrated, and that the motive for the attacks was not only criminal. Mulder further claimed that “a definite anti-Afrikaner climate had taken root in South Africa. People accused of murdering Afrikaners were often applauded by supporters during court appearances”.

Volkstaat - Unemployment

White (of whom the majority is Afrikaners) unemployment is low by South African standards: 10% in 2001, compared to a national average of 37%. White unemployment has, however, experienced the greatest proportional increase between 1995 and 2001: 197% compared to a national average of 27%. In 2001 some 228,000 economically active whites were unemployed. This coincides with the introduction of (and is considered a direct result of) Affirmative Action (also called Employment Equity), which enforces racial quotas upon all employers. This often makes it very difficult, by law, for white people to be accepted in job vacancies, a side-effect of which is coloquially referred to as the "Brain Drain" (the wholesale emigration of skilled white professionals).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Afrikaner reasons for wanting a Volkstaat", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki