Jan van Reinbeck and his followers faced the following problems in their social and economic life;
- They suffered from homesickness because they were very far from home.
- Absence of adequate geographical knowledge about the cape area.
- Unexpected weather and climate changes like long periods of drought brought famine to them.
- The occurrence floods which brought discomfort to them by sweeping away the temporary huts and tents
- The pioneers had poor accommodation facilities i.e. wooden leaking houses
- There was hostility with the bantu, khoikhoi due to competition over land for grazing
- The pioneers ran short of funds hence bringing shortage in the supplies
- They lacked enough and sufficient land for farming and settlement
- The soils were not fertile enough to facilitate high yields of cop production.
- They lacked enough education facilities for their children at the cape.
- The language differences between them and the khoikhoi limited them from getting what they wanted
- Poor transport and communication facilities at the cape.
- Inadequate marriageable women led to homosexuality.
- The inadequate market for their produced commodities.
- Rivalry from European countries like Britain and France.
- The invasion of locusts in the cape colony in the years around 1685 proved disastrous.
- The high amount of land rent charged from them by the company.
- They were few in number so they suffered from boredom.
- They lacked enough medical facilities fro the sick people
- Many Dutch settlers ere ex-soldiers therefore they yielded little due to little knowledge about agriculture.
- They were restricted from growing profitable crops like tobacco. Inadequate labour force in their farms.
- Crop production costs were too high because crops like barley, wheat needed a lot of care hence getting low profits.