Post-apartheid era

Efforts are being made by some Afrikaners to secure minority rights even though protection of minority rights is fundamental to the new 1996 post-apartheid Constitution of South Africa. These efforts include the Volkstaat movement. In contrast, a handful of Afrikaners have joined the ruling African National Congress party, which is overwhelmingly supported by South Africa's black majority. However, the vast majority of Afrikaners support South Africa's official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, indicating their acceptance of non-racism within a free enterprise economy, and in the spirit of people like Frederik van Zyl Slabbert who was the leader of the official opposition — the Progressive Federal Party — in the House of Assembly from 1979 to 1986.
Employment Equity legislation favours employment of black (African, Indian and Coloured) South Africans over white women and men. Black Economic Empowerment legislation further favours blacks as the government considers ownership, employment, training and social responsibility initiatives which empower black South Africans as important criteria when awarding tenders. However, private enterprise adheres to this legislation voluntarily.^[29] Some reports indicate a growing number of whites suffering poverty compared to the pre-apartheid years and attribute this to such laws — over 350,000 Afrikaners may be classified as poor, with some research claiming that up to 150,000 are struggling for survival.^[30][31] This combined with a wave of violent crime has led to vast numbers of Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans leaving the country.
Genocide Watch has theorised that farm attacks constitute early warning signs of genocide against Afrikaners and has criticised the South African government for its inaction on the issue, pointing out that the murder rate for them ("ethno-European farmers" in their report, which also included non-Afrikaner farmers of European race) is four times that of the general South African population.^[32] There are 40,000 white farmers in South Africa. Since 1994 close to three thousand farmers have been murdered in thousands of farm attacks,^[33] with many being brutally tortured and/or raped. Some victims have been burned with smoothing irons or had boiling water poured down their throats.^[34]

Afrikaner diaspora and emigration

See also: Brain drain in South Africa

Since 1994 there has been significant emigration of white people from South Africa. There are thus currently large Afrikaner and English-speaking South African communities in the UK and other developed countries. Between 1995 and 2005, more than one million South Africans have emigrated, citing violent and racially motivated black on white crime as the main reason.^[35] Farmers have emigrated to other parts of Africa to develop efficient commercial farming there.^[36]

Geography

Namibia

There were 133,324 speakers of Afrikaans in Namibia, forming 9.5% of the total national population, according to the 1991 census. However the majority of these speakers come from the Coloured and Baster communities.^{[citation needed]} Afrikaners are mostly found in Windhoek and in the Southern provinces.^[37]

Global presence

A significant number of Afrikaners have migrated to countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.
A large number of young Afrikaners are taking advantage of working holiday visas made available by the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, as well as the Netherlands and Belgium, to gain work experience. The scheme under which UK working holiday visas were issued ended on 27 November 2008 and has been replaced by the Tier 5 (Youth Mobility) visa. South Africa is unlikely to partake in this scheme.
As of 2011, Georgia is encouraging Afrikaner immigration to help kickstart the country's agriculture industry, which has declined significantly since the fall of communism.^[38]