We shed no tears for Nelson Mandela. He is a fallen opponent, say residents of white enclave Orania

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Several things immediately strike a visitor to Orania. There is no litter, the sign-posts are coloured orange and there are an awful lot of white faces.

Since 1991, when the town of Orania was established on private land near the Orange River with the intention of preserving and protecting the culture of white Afrikaners, the enclave has not had a single non-white resident.

On Sunday, millions across South Africa will watch the funeral of Nelson Mandela, the man widely credited with sparing the country a race war. Yet here in Orania, few tears will be shed for a man considered by most residents to be an enemy.

“We encountered his death with dry eyes and due respect,” said Carel Boshoff, president of the Orania Movement and the son of its founder. “In some respects we see him as a fallen opponent.”

Since the town was set up 380 miles south-west of Johannesburg with 100 residents, its population has grown to more than 1,000. There are two schools, three churches and an airstrip. Orania has its own radio station, its own currency (the ora) and 30 square miles of land, spread across the edge of the Karoo desert.

Orania has a blue, white and orange flag featuring a workman and the road signs are all orange. Religious sentiment – nine Christian denominations are represented here – means that works stops on a Sunday. The main industries are agriculture, tourism and professional services.

Anyone wishing to move to Orania has to be approved by a selection board, yet officials insist they do not discriminate on the grounds of race. A black South African could, they insist with a collective straight face, win approval if the person showed they could support themselves and if they could prove they were interested in promoting white Afrikaner culture. None have so far applied.

“I think it would be possible in 10 years’ time when the sensitivity is less,” said John Strydom, 59, a former medical doctor who moved to Orania in 1995 and now makes a living growing pecan nuts. “But they would have to support our ideas, at least passively.”

Mr Strydom said it was a tragedy that communities around the world were losing their culture. There were many young black South Africans who could now longer speak their mother tongues, he said.

Asked if Orania was made up of racists, Mr Strydom, who admitted he had no non-white friends, said: “I think you would find as many racists here as you would in any town. We are not unique in that sense. Even Soweto has racists.”

Orania may represent the extreme end of a line of thought shared by a number of white South Africans, particularly the Afrikaners, descendants of the Boers who clashed with the British in the early 20th century and failed to establish an independent state. Yet it also raises questions about South Africa’s future, an issue that has been widely discussed in the days since Mandela’s death: namely, with the passing of a man who promoted reconciliation, how will communities that for generations saw each other through prisms of prejudice and discrimination hope to move forward?

Mandela recognised the symbolic importance of Orania and considered it worth making the journey here in 1995 to meet officials and explain his vision for the country. (Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s current president, also paid a visit, in 2010.)

Mandela arrived in a helicopter after being invited by the late Betsie Verwoerd, the 94-year-old widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the so-called architect of apartheid, a system that refused equal rights to black people until it was scrapped in 1994. Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966.

During his visit, Mandela put his arm around the elderly woman and posed for photographs. “I identify myself with the wishes of my people for a volkstaat [people’s state] which I believe could be developed in this part of the country,” she told him. Mandela replied: “I want a united South Africa where we can cease to think in terms of colour.”

If Mr Boshoff and Mr Strydom represent the articulate face of Orania, stressing the community’s self-reliance and investment in green technology, others are less polished.

One man, who moved to Orania two years ago and who asked not to be named, said he had been attracted by its sense of safety and security. “[Black people] are always causing trouble. We don’t have that here,” he said. Asked if such a view was racist, the man who makes a living doing gardening jobs, said: “Some people would say that.”

Yet the man was not happy. He said there was a clear divide between the shop owners and professionals and labourers such as himself. “They treat you like a dog. They don’t respect you,” he added. “You are a working man and that’s it.”

If some are going, others are coming. Annette Jonck arrived two years ago after serving 23 years with the police force in Johannesburg. She said she was beguiled by the beauty and safety of the place and was less concerned about the promotion of Afrikaner culture.

She said she was asked, during her interview to become a resident, whether she hated black people. She said she had worked with black people throughout her life. “I like the cleanliness here,” said Mrs Jonck, who gets her electricity from solar power. “We never lock our doors.”

Ryan Genis was pushing a pram along the track outside Mrs Jonck’s house. A barrister from Pretoria, Mr Genis said he and his wife were looking to move to “paradise” next year with their four children. He too said he liked the peace and security and he too said he was not racist.

“I am very much pro-Afrikaner. I like my people, I like living among them,” he said. “Afrikaners are an extremely small minority. We don’t feel very welcome in South Africa.”

The residents of Orania claimed black people could visit and often shopped here but during The Independent’s 24-hour visit, the only black person seen in the town was a South African journalist.

In in the town of Hopetown 25 miles away, black residents said it was possible for them to stop briefly and use the shops in Orania but that most usually kept going. Janine de Beer, 20, said she had stopped to buy cold drinks but her sister said she had been told to move on. Ms de Beer added: “It’s not supposed to be like this.”