JAQUI GARY GRADWELL sports a bushy beard in the style of his voortrekker ancestors—the pioneers who fled British rule in ox-drawn wagons. Also in the spirit of the voortrekkers, he vows to lead his people away from oppression. Afrikaner culture is under threat in the new South Africa, he reckons. White people face “genocide”. So Mr Gradwell (pictured) wants to lead like-minded whites—40,000 of them, he predicts—to a farm in a remote part of the Eastern Cape to live together in an agrarian idyll.

A promotional video for Die Eden Projek (The Eden Project) contrasts images of black rioters, black criminals and President Jacob Zuma with soft-focus photos of happy white families with tractors and chickens. It does not, however, mention Mr Gradwell’s somewhat chequered past, which includes being convicted of firearms offences while living in America.

Mr Gradwell’s plan has generated many headlines but little support. Disgruntled whites already have an enclave, but hardly anyone wants to live there. Orania, an Afrikaner-only town in the Karoo desert, has been around since 1991. Despite impressive organisation and towering ambitions (it has its own currency, the Ora, and a flag, which features a white boy rolling up his sleeves), it is home to just 1,100 people. Orania’s isolation has left it economically unattractive and politically irrelevant.

Frans Cronje of the Institute of Race Relations, a liberal think-tank, says that news stories about white separatists can reinforce the gloomiest perceptions about South Africa: “that we’re only one step away from a race war”. But they are piffle. “Rank and file South Africans are actually pretty committed to making it work with each other,” he says. A survey from the IRR found that 76% of South Africans thought race relations had improved or stayed the same since 1994, when apartheid ended. In another poll, 68% of respondents said that they expected a happy future for South Africans of all races. Nonetheless, according to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, another think-tank, more than half of South Africans barely interact with people of other races except when at work or while shopping.

Still, some South Africans worry that tough times may aggravate racial tension. Youth unemployment is around 50%. The economy is dicing with recession. Mr Zuma’s approval rating is a miserable 21%. A skilful demagogue could whip up something nasty from these ingredients.