Cape Town - Set in one of the most isolated and driest parts of the province with its few colonial-style dwellings and one massive NG Kerk, is Merweville.
The small town on the north-eastern border of the Western Cape, is 130km from Beaufort West - the municipality is run by the ANC.
Only last year was a gravel road that connected the town from the N1 tarred.
There are other roads into the town including the R353, and a 40km dirt road from Leeu Gamka.
Merweville was established more than 100 years ago on the Vanderbilskraal farm, and named after Reverend Pieter van der Merwe, chairperson of the Dutch Reformed Church Council that established the town.
In 1904, some low-grade coal was found in the area and, although it was never viable, disused shafts are one of the main tourists attractions in the town.
Today the main economy of the town is its game, olive, and livestock farms.
While residents enjoy being connected to the grid, it becomes eerily dark at night, as there are no street lights.
According to StatsSA, Merweville has a population of about 1 500 people, of which only four percent received higher education and training.
Like many small towns in the Karoo, including Prince Albert, about 80 km from it, there is still a glaring divide between coloured and white people, with almost no coloured people owning their own businesses, but rather working on white-owned farms.
Adjacent to the prettily decorated colonial-era styled houses, is a township where houses look very different.
Resident Klara Masoes, 52, who has been marginalised all her life, is completely unenthusiastic about the upcoming municipal election, and so are many of her neighbours.
Masoes is more concerned about winning the daily struggle to put food on her family’s table.
Sometimes, if she is lucky, she gets to cook a pot of animal fat she gets free from the local butcher; otherwise, there is no telling what, if anything, there will be for dinner.
Masoes lives in an abandoned old 2x2 square metre facebrick house on an uneven stony hill, which she shares with her nine-year-old daughter and husband.
She and her family often freeze as temperatures often reach below zero in winter.
But while her life seems tough, Masoes seems tougher, and does not complain much.
“Nee, mevrou, die lewe is moeilk, maar ons het nie keuse nie. Ons moet maar aan gaan.”(No, Ma’am, life is difficult, but we don’t have another choice. We must just carry on).
Jacob Brink, 52, said he gave up on voting for a political party a long time ago.
“They come in here when its election time but then drive away and forget about us. I have been homeless and waiting for a place to call my own for years. I have a feeling it’s never going to happen, so why waste my time,”Brink said.
Most residents in the area are also oblivious to the latest news surrounding Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince, including recent reports that he was allegedly involved in a sexual assault case, and that he is not this year’s mayoral candidate.
@FrancescaJaneV
Cape Times