All doom and gloom in Klaarstroom

Published Jul 7, 2015

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Cape Town - Waking up between towering mountains, listening to water trickling past in shallow streams and inhaling the pure air of the semi-arid Little Karoo would be an idyllic holiday for most.

But years of direct exposure to sunlight, walking long, winding gravel roads in search of work, and using the nearby river and bush as a toilet has taken its toll on 33-year-old Katrina Prins, who looks much older than her age, and forlorn.

Her skin is sunburnt, and she is drowning in her oversized clothes.

Prins lives in a shack in Klaarstroom, a small town between Prince Albert, the gateway to the Karoo, and the charming De Rust, about 450km north-east of Cape Town.

She shares the area with about 30 other families, most of whom rely on seasonal farm work.

The settlement has no lighting. It has one tap and two toilets which, according to residents, have not worked for the past two years.

“Look around, the area is beautiful. But life is tough out here. I have lived in a ‘hok’ all my life. If they cared about us, they would at least have provided us with toilets,” Prins says.

“As a woman, it is a struggle, but as a mother it is worse. How does one expect all these families to live without proper sanitation services?” Prins asks.

She is unemployed and has three children, aged 16, 12 and 4. Her husband Freddie does odd jobs at businesses in De Rust, about 40km from home.

Prince Albert mayor Goliath Lottering said in 2012, people who had lived at the location were moved into low-cost houses not too far away from the settlement. At the time, the houses were enough to cater for all who lived in Klaarstroom, Lottering said.

The people who currently live in the shacks were evicted from nearby farms and had moved into the shacks illegally when the others moved out.

Lottering said the toilets were repaired last month, but a technical team was reviewing plans for the last six months to replace the two toilets completely.

“They were never given permission to move in, they did so illegally. In June we spent around R12 000 to repair the toilets, so I don’t know why they are broken again. They might have destroyed it. We now have a team looking into replacing the toilets completely,” Lottering said.

Diana Jantjies, 22, is idling around outside. From De Rust, Jantjies is visiting her boyfriend in Klaarstroom.

She is a seasonal farmworker and when there is no work, she spends her days basking in the sun.

“There are limited opportunities here. I like my job, but it is only for a few months of the year. When there is no work, there is nothing to do,” said Jantjies.

She says not having access to transport and money are stopping her from chasing her dreams.

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