South African authorities are investigating a gated community accused of keeping alive the nasty legacy of the old institutional racial discrimination policy “apartheid”, which was supposed to have disappeared 20 years ago.

“Kleinfontein” is surrounded by bars, guarded by armed white men in uniforms, and prominently features a granite bust of Hendrick Verwoerd, the assassinated prime minister considered the architect of apartheid.  A local newspaper recently exposed its “whites only” policy to public attention.  Decades after apartheid was wiped out, few people in South Africa knew that it existed.

A spokeswoman tried to excuse it:  “Kleinfontein is a cultural community,” says Marisa Haasbroek, “if you are not an Afrikaaner you cannot live here.”  Afrikaaners are white South Africans of mostly Dutch descent.

Officials have visited the site and an investigation is underway.  The local mayor says it’s a difficult situation because he says the residents have a right to “conserve their heritage but that it must be balanced with the freedom of others to reside anywhere in the republic.”

The mayor says it will NOT be recognized as its own municipality.

Haasbroek said, “We don't really feel welcomed in the new South Africa so we are saying, just give us a little bit of independence.”