Argentine Afrikaners tell fleeing South Africans: Don't come to us

The Boers of Argentina have some advice for white South Africans fleeing political turmoil -- don't follow in our footsteps. At the turn of the century, three shiploads of Afrikaners left South Africa for Argentina to get away from the British, who had just won the Boer War.

Today, about 400 of them live in and around this windswept town 1,000 miles south of Buenos Aires, farming and raising sheep. They still speak Afrikaans, attend the Dutch Reformed Church, and eat traditional South African foods.

However, ``none of the Boers here want to return to live in South Africa,'' said Gerardo Myburg, honorary South African consul here. He added that many white South Africans anxious to leave their country have visited Comodoro Rivadavia, thinking about settling.

``I advise them against it,'' he said. ``Taxes on farmers are high here and land is very expensive.''

``We've grown up away from apartheid so we don't think like they do in South Africa,'' said Boer farmer Conrado Visser. ``I was quite shocked at how they treat the blacks there.''