S. Africa's island of whites

It looks like any of the other small towns peppering the plains of the upper Karoo. White picket fences, wind chimes outside the post office, and dull prefab houses bleached by the relentless sun. A battered pickup truck lumbers by; a young mother heads into the grocery store to buy a jar of jam.

But something seems off. An unfamiliar flag on the post; a different language on the street signs; an almost eerie quiet. And no blacks. In a country where just 12 percent of the 45 million people are white, Orania stands out.

Founded a decade ago, Orania is an Afrikaner "private town" with a throw-back ideology and a stringent admittance policy to match. In the wake of historic elections, when South Africa left behind the apartheid legacy of separation and discrimination, most whites ignored Orania, or were embarrassed by it.

But now, residents say more whites are embracing the idea of Orania. An increase in poverty and crime in South Africa, coupled with a national affirmative- action policy, making it harder for the old white Afrikaner elite to get access to education and jobs, has led to white frustration.

Recently, several fringe Afrikaner groups have set off explosives aimed at the black government, killing one woman and wounding many more. Last Thursday, a bridge was destroyed in KwaZulu-Natal, and a letter was sent to newspapers by one radical group warning of more destruction to come over the Christmas holiday season.

While citizens in Orania have no connection to nor condone the bombings, they are trying to capitalize on the sentiments behind them. Orania is busy portraying its segregated lifestyle as the only alternative for South African whites.

Don't fight the system, says Mayor Prinsloo Potgieter, "Join us and leave the system behind."

The 500 or so acres of land on which Orania sites were bought in 1991 by a small group of Afrikaners - descendants of Dutch and French settlers who came to Africa some 300 years ago. Afrikaners make up about 60 percent of the country's 5.5 million whites. The plan was to build a homeland to which all Afrikaners could flock, but the population has never risen above 600.

"It is too hot," explain residents. "There is no work," suggest youngsters, "and there is no one to work for you," they add sheepishly. "It is a little limited socially," admits one housewife. But mainly, most here agree, the town hasn't grown because it is still "not bad enough" for Afrikaners "on the outside."

Some say it's getting that way "out there." "Two years ago, I thought these guys were nuts," says Neels Oosthusizen, an Afrikaner lawyer down from Johannesburg to see Orania for himself. "Now I think it is the only way." He says he is sick of "hard times. They [the black government] have messed it all up."

Not all whites agree, based on the fact that Orania has grown little over the years. "I am getting along fine together with everyone ... and have no need for a place like Orania," says Marina Vermeulen, an Afrikaner businesswoman in Kimberly. "But," she adds, "I can understand them."

Some residents say the recent bombings are a reflection of just how bad whites feel. "Five years ago, [the radical Afrikaners] would not have planted bombs," says Orania high school teacher Wynand Boshoff, who was at university with some of the half dozen men arrested on charges of high treason and terrorism in connection with the plots against the government in recent months. "So who knows what will happen five years down the line?"

Down the road from the Orania grocery store is the Verwoerd Museum, commemorating former South Africa Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, a determined believer that South Africa's races should live apart. Mr. Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, is not very much in fashion in today's new South Africa.

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