Balmoral is a town in the Emalahleni Local Municipality in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The village was established as a railway station of the Oosterlijn from Pretoria to Maputo in 1894. The village and railway station were erected at the farm Eenzaamheid. For decades the village was nothing more than a railway stop with a primary school for the surrounding farms. During the Second Boer War, the British built a concentration camp near the railway station.

Development plans In 1997, several Afrikaner businessmen, including the chairman of the Boere-Republiek Koöperatief Beperk (Boers Republic Co-operative Limited), Fritz Meyer, bought three parts of the farm Eenzaamheid outside the village.Parts 28, 29, 30 of the farm Eenzaamheid, See: BVKB Reëls 2013 , BVKB, 2013. Intended as a self-declared homeland for white Afrikaners, it was reputed to have been financed by American white supremacist politician David Duke. Prominent right-winger Willem Ratte owns a farm in Balmoral.

In May 2012 the Boere-Republiek Koöperatief Beperk (Boers Republic Co-operative Limited) was re-registered as Balmoral Vestigings Koöperatief Beperk (BVKB). The objective of the Co-operative is in line with Clause 3 of 19 of the Co-operative Act, 2005.

Graveyard and museum The graveyard of the Balmoral concentration camp, dating back to the Second Boer War, lies at the property of the BVKB. In 1997 the BVKB-residents established the "Volksmoord Museum of Boer Genocide" next to the graveyard of the Balmoral concentration camp and petitioned the British High Commission in Pretoria for an apology for the concentration camp deaths.

In 2013, Willem Ratte removed his belongings from the museum, which decayed and repeatedly was vandalized.Museum tot niet , Die Bronberger, 27 February 2014.Museumskatte lê in kratte , Middelburg Observer, 21 April 2016. Later, Ratte refused to recollect its belongings from the place where he had stored them.Ratte wil nie gevind word , Middelburg Observer, 23 April 2016. In 2016, the empty and decayed museum burned down in a field fire.Vlamme kan geskiedenis nie uitwis nie , Middelburg Observer, 14 October 2016.

In 2016, the BVKB sold the graveyard and the ruins of the museum to a new owner.New Owner , Balmoral Begrafplaas, 8 November 2016.

See also Orania Kleinfontein

References

External links Balmoral Vestigings Koöperatief Beperk (Balmoral Settlement Cooperative)