Is a small conclave in South Africa holding onto the memory of Apartheid? Nkepile Mabuse of CNN is reporting that yes, a town located South East of Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, is being accused of trying to keep its racist ideals alive. Mabuse writes:
“White men clad in military uniforms stamped with an old South African flag guard the gates of the controversial settlement known as Kleinfontein.
All the signs within its boundaries are written in Afrikaans, the language that developed out of the Dutch dialect spoken by early colonizers and which is spoken by the town’s 1,000 white inhabitants.
A bust of Hendrick Verwoerd, the assassinated prime minister considered the architect of apartheid, greets visitors upon entry.
‘Kleinfontein is a cultural community,’ explains its spokeswoman Marisa Haasbroek, “if you are not an Afrikaaner you cannot live here.” Afrikaaners are white South Africans of mostly Dutch descent. The private settlement has made headlines in recent weeks after it was exposed by a local newspaper. Haasbroek defends its existence saying residents simply want to live among their own kind.
Haasbroek moved to Kleinfontein after her car had been broken into while living in the heart of Pretoria, which prompted her to move her family to the all-white “conclave.”
Haasbroek insists that they don’t discriminate, Kleinfontein “differentiates.”
TBW: With all of the amazing things going on in South Africa, it is disappointing that some refuse to move past the past into the future. We suppose the adage that old habits die hard is true amongst the people of Kleinfontein.
Read the story in its entirety on CNN.
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