13 Long Street
UNCLE JAN ROSSOUW – Municipal Night-Soil Collector
This house was the home of Uncle Jan Rossouw, who lived here in the early twentieth century. Known throughout the town as “Uncle Jan Nagwa,” he worked through the night collecting and disposing of night soil—the buckets of human waste from homes before the introduction of modern sewerage.
His work, carried out for the municipality, was essential to the town’s sanitation and public health. Though demanding, unpleasant, and often overlooked, it helped keep the community clean and reduced the spread of disease.
This plaque honours Uncle Jan Rossouw and all those whose unseen labour formed an indispensable part of everyday life in the town’s early history.
