South Africa’s white Afrikaner separatists want Trump’s help to become state

By Tim Cocks

A group of white Afrikaners was so opposed to majority Black rule when apartheid ended some three decades ago that they carved out a separatist enclave, the only town in South Africa where all residents, including menial workers, are white.

Now, the residents of Orania – population, 3,000 – in the semi-arid Karoo region want U.S. President Donald Trump to help them become a state.

Last week, community leaders from Orania visited the United States seeking recognition as an autonomous entity. South African authorities acknowledge it as a town that can raise local taxes and deliver services.

“We wanted to… gain recognition, with the American focus on South Africa now,” Orania Movement leader Joost Strydom told Reuters, on a hill strewn with bronzes of past Afrikaner leaders, including from the era of racist white minority rule that was ended by internal resistance and international outrage.

The 8,000-hectare settlement