Kaross embroiderers mend economic divides in rural Limpopo

An article by Twyg. written by Stella Hertantyo | Aug 5, 2024

In 1989, five women sat around a kitchen table embroidering cloth on a rural Limpopo citrus farm. Over three decades later, impact-driven business Kaross employs 1,000 embroiderers who work from home and create uniquely South African embroidered products while mending historic economic divides.

“The impetus of Kaross has always been job creation. That is the reason it was started and this remains our focus in everything we do. We believe in economic empowerment and freedom,” says Janine Pretorius, the managing director of Kaross.

The kitchen table where it all began belonged to Janine’s mother, Irma van Rooyen, who is a citrus farmer and fine artist. Irma became acutely aware of the unemployment crisis in rural Limpopo and decided that she wanted to be a part of the solution. Searching for a common thread to merge her family heritage, connect with the local context, and tackle the employment crisis, Irma settled on embroidery.“My mother is of Dutch heritage and my grandmother was an embroidery teacher,” says Janine.

“As VaTsonga people, embroidery is in our blood,” says Noria Mahlaule, a full-time embroiderer who has worked at Kaross since 2016. Embroidery has become a shared language and a shared medium for creating a better future.

Shella Mathebula shows a typical cushion cover	Thandy Londry Mongwe holds up her embroidered cloth

The heart of Kaross remains on the original citrus farm. There, you’ll find a bustling hub of 17 full-time employees who handle the design, marketing, and management of Kaross. Part of what makes the Kaross business model unique is the decentralised, yet collective, nature of the work.

Almost all of the 1,000 embroiderers are women from the Nkambako and Nwamitwa villages. “Most of us are mothers. Many of us are single mothers. So, working from home with flexible working hours helps us earn an income while looking after our homesteads,” says Noria.

Each embroiderer is a contracted pieceworker, meaning that they are paid per product they create. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the embroiderers travel to the Kaross studio to deliver their completed products, get paid, and collect more work. With the difficulties and distances of travel, this is a business model that has adapted to a rural setting.

The 100% hand-embroidered accessories and homeware are sold predominantly from airport shops to tourists looking to return home with a reminder of South Africa. Their bestsellers are cushion covers and bags, featuring fauna and flora motifs in vibrant colour ways. On average, one cushion cover takes five days to make.

“Our business was never profit-driven. It never has been and it will never be. We are about creating jobs and leaving a legacy that will outlive all of us,” says Janine. When you look past the postcard-worthy vistas and embroidered mementos, the lived reality of rural South Africa is not as easy on the eye.

There is a severe lack of jobs in this farming economy. “It is beautiful, but not an easy place,” says Janine. The quality of education is poor and, other than seasonal farm work, jobs are hard to come by. In this landscape of precarity, Kaross provides a year-round income people can count on. “You can’t find a job without a proper education,” says Try Nkuna, a full-time embroiderer who has worked at Kaross since 2013.

Noria says, “Our biggest battle is putting our children through school and making sure that they can get a job with that education.”

This is what the Kaross Foundation is tackling. Founded on the belief that high-quality education is the key to breaking generational cycles of economic hardship, Groep 91 Uitvoer (a family-owned citrus producer) partnered with Kaross to further improve the lives of embroiderers and farm workers.

Working in partnership with the government’s Department of Basic Education, local business and school leadership from early childhood development education to high school, the Foundation assesses the integrity of the local school system and facilitates academic interventions. The ultimate aim is to improve the quality of the academic achievement of a South African matriculant to become a contributor to the South African economy.

An example of an embroidered cloth by Kaross

Stitch by stitch, things are changing. “I have been able to send my son to university, because of the work I do at Kaross,” says Noria, proudly.

The 30 years of its existence haven’t been without struggle. Kaross had to close down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time they employed 1,400 embroiderers and they are slowly returning to that number. But Kaross is in business for the long run. “This work needs to run so deep that it changes the status quo,” says Janine.

What started in rural South Africa has now made it to the world. Recently, the Kaross team dipped into high fashion with their contribution to the Dior Men’s S/S 2025 collection. Kaross worked on three large scarves and embroidered collars. The collection pays homage to iconic South African ceramicist, Hylton Nel, and also features hats by the Capetonian brand, Earth Age.

Try, Noria, and the Kaross team worked non-stop for a week before handing their Dior contributions to a courier who flew in straight from Paris. “The Dior project was a fun challenge because we are not used to working in fashion. It taught me that, for the next phase of Kaross, I want to evolve our technique even further and build an army of embroiderers that can take on any project, while remaining Afrocentric,” says Janine.

 Kaross embroidered three scarves and collars for the Dior Men’s S/S 2025 collection

In Africa, cloth holds heritage. Cloth is an archive, a monument, a family history – a window into a pre-colonial past. For 1,000 embroiderers in rural Limpopo, it holds hope for the future too.

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