‘I visited a whites-only town — it could happen in Britain’
‘I think people are becoming increasingly small-minded around identity.'
In a private gated neighbourhood just half an hour’s drive from Johannesburg, stands a statue of SJP Kruger, the controversial South African politician who championed segregation.
Not far away stands the monument of former Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, who is often referred to as the father of apartheid.
Both are set proudly within the grounds of the 8.6km² community known as Kleinfontein, which is also home to around 1000 residents, a shopping centre, a bank, a school, and a reservoir.
But not everyone can live there, there’s strict criteria for entry: Residents need to be Protestant Christians, descendants of Voortrekkers and speak Afrikaans.
They need to be white.
The town has come under the microscope as part of documentary maker Ben Zand’s latest YouTube series Human, and while it’s not unusual for him to cover subjects that may make people uncomfortable, even for him — a mixed-race British-Iranian man — it was a difficult, but necessary, story to tell.
