 Surely the interests of all Afrikaners throughout the region must be essentially the same?Smuts identified two main factors hindering union; the reluctance of the British population to put down roots, to regard South Africa as home rather than looking back to Britain, and the Afrikaner desire to keep itself apart, relying on its superior numbers to impose its will upon the rest.So far as Smuts could see these two obstacles had been overcome in the Cape, why not in the Transvaal?