Six-year-old’s disappearance spreads fear in SA’s Saldhana Bay
CAPE TOWN - Inside a busy primary school classroom in the South Africa seaside town of Saldanha Bay, one chair is left empty.
This is where six-year-old Joshlin Smith sits - or sat until she went missing in February in a case that has gripped the attention of South Africans.
The huge search operation that involved the navy as well as local volunteers, the big reward and the arrest of her mother have served to make this an irresistible story.
But the community living with its day-today reality remains scared.
Saldanha Bay, about 120km (75 miles) north-west of Cape Town, has the reputation of being a tranquil, quaint town known for its fishing, watersports and magnificently colourful wildflowers that bloom in spring in the town’s nature reserve.
Despite the end of apartheid 30 years ago, the spatial planning in Saldanha, like most cities and towns in South Africa, still reflects the inequalities bequeathed by the system of separate and unequal development.
As one enters the town through the business district, the upmarket housing, which includes guest houses and holiday homes, is located close to the coastline.
But when going into the areas of Diazville and Middelpos, which comprise a mixture of low-cost and informal housing, there is a noticeable change.
The homes in Diazville are mostly government-subsidised basic brick and mortar structures, known as RDP (part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme) homes. In the adjacent Middelpos area there’s a mixture of RDP homes and corrugated iron shacks built on an open field.
There is a marked sense of anxiety and suspicion in the two communities, particularly when they see an outsider or a car that is not from the area.
The rise in the number of parents and guardians eagerly waiting to collect their children outside the gates of the modest Diazville primary school is an indication of how much more care is being taken by residents to ensure the safety of young children in the area.