The last of Verwoerd's volk

ONCE you get past Willie, the young man in military dress manning the gates of Kleinfontein, you know you have moved into a different dimension.

A large bust of Hendrik Verwoerd stands among clods of earth in front of what appears to be a row of shops. Most of the shops, however, are abandoned. Coffee and koeksisters are available in a sparsely stocked home-industry shop.

Further into the estate are the houses, mostly face-brick modest homes with neat gardens. Several are in the process of being built or renovated. Rubble is plentiful.

The big difference between Kleinfontein and the outside world is that the labourers here are white. White labourers are also building the culvert on the road to the Groenewald home.

Jan Groenewald, chairman of Kleinfontein's board of directors, is also a founder member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and the creative talent behind the party's swastika-like emblem.

Groenewald refers often to article 235 of the South African constitution, which recognises "the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity". They are doing no harm, he says, they just want to be left alone to practise their culture.

Applicants are screened. It is not enough to be Afrikaans and white: you must also be Christian and passionate about the "Afrikaner nation". If you die, your property will not necessarily be handed to your children - if they do not fit the bill, they will have to take money instead.

The estate has some grand houses, but for the most part it is as shabby and poor as the rest of rural South Africa .