Orania celebrates 15 years

2006-04-12 16:10

Bloemfontein - The Afrikaner separatist enclave of Orania in the Northern Cape will celebrate 15 years of existence on Thursday, with community activities and a new series of Ora currency notes.

Eleanor Lombard, spokesperson for the Orania Movement, said a public holiday had been declared in the enclave, and festivities would begin with the hoisting of the Orania flag and a brief religious ceremony.

She said an exhibition of Orania's history would be held at the town's auditorium and the new banknotes would be introduced during a dinner in the town hall on Thursday.

The Afrikaner town, on the banks of the Orange River, is structured as a private settlement.

Its citizens maintain Orania has a claim to self-determination underpinned by the constitution.

Orania's transitional representative council, elected in 1995, was officially abolished by the Northern Cape government in 2000.

'Orania is self-supporting'

It then fell into a single municipality with the neighbouring towns of Strydenburg and Hopetown.

The community successfully applied to Kimberley High Court to have the government's decision overturned, pending further negotiations on self-determination.

The Kimberly court granted an indefinite postponement.

The court said Orania retained all its powers and was allowed to exercise its competencies, as long as these did not interfere with the work of the new combined council.

Lombard said the town was economically self-supporting.

The town has an Orania chamber of commerce, a ratepayers' council and councils for arts, tourism, conservation and development.

- SAPA