Orania was established as a place to protect the Afrikaans culture and Christian values. In 1991, the founding fathers bought 500 hectares of parched Karoo scrubland for R1.6 million Rand. Photos of the place then show a desolate, abandoned wasteland whose only redeeming feature was proximity to the Orange River. 24 years later there has been a remarkable transformation -- perhaps unrivalled on Earth.
Orania now is over 8,000 hectares (80 square kilometres) and worth over R500 million. Just over 1,000 people live there. Efficient, modern irrigation systems have turned the brown semi-desert green, growing crops of lucerne, maize, almonds, olives and, for some reason I don't understand, pecan nuts. Orania seems to have developed a niche market in pecan nuts.
It also grows fruit, vegetables and flowers in greenhouses, and has livestock. Its industrial centre provides for all of its water, sewerage and electricity infrastructure. It provides its own services yet pays taxes to South Africa.
It is acutely sensitive of environmental protection, and uses in a sensible way the best benefits of solar power, modern agriculture and waste separation (at our chalet, there were two rubbish bins marked "Herwinbaar" and "Nie Herwinbaar").
The schools in Orania, using both traditional and informal teaching methods, have got a 100% matric success, sending their pupils to universities all over South Africa. There is essentially no crime. There is no unemployment.
I tried to summarise all of this in 400 words and sent it off to The Citizen. I made a big point of saying that Orania was nothing like apartheid, was in fact the antithesis of apartheid.
Slipping further along in the article.
Down the ages, thinkers of all political and religious persuasions, from Karl Marx to Ayn Rand, have tried to design the perfect society. Most practical realisations of these designs have been nightmares, with Communism being the prime example. Small religious communities have done much better, and perhaps "small" is the key to success. Another key to success is organic development on guiding principles rather than implementation of a rigid master plan. Orania seems to me a great success.
It has many of the attributes that all libertarians seek: liberty, voluntary co-operation, mutual respect among all, a free market, and a spirit of enterprise and hard work. The garden labourer lives next door to the business leader, with not much difference in their houses. There is dignity for all. The sense of community and shared purpose is tangible, even to insensitive people such as me.
Much like the people of Israel and our own Amish, it was not for nothing that the forefathers of these industrious people departed the corrupt big governments and oppressive central planning regimes of Europe. Might be something to be learned here, if only they can survive and their story told.