Skeem Saam star Clement Maosa knows what it is like to have to bury his parents and hopes that the Covid-19 pandemic will not lead to others having to share his pain.

While the rate of infection and death in SA slowly climbs, Clement took to Twitter on Tuesday to open up about how difficult it is to carry on when your parents have died. He added that he hopes the virus will not “separate most from their loved ones”.

“Accepting the reality of living without parents remains an ongoing process to some of us even years later and I pray this pandemic doesn’t separate most from their loved ones. The pain is unbearable and almost impossible to overcome,” he said.

The star has been open about his parents' death when he was just a teenager, and in a letter to himself on his 30th birthday spoke about the struggles he faced after they died.

“Your mom and dad were both domestic workers and couldn’t afford you nice things in life, but look at you now. Your parents left you as a teenager with nothing, but look at you,” he wrote.

He dedicated a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro last year to them and others who had died.

“I'm doing it for all those underprivileged, those with less opportunities, lack of resources and facilities and those neglected. I’m doing it for all the orphans out there who are about to lose hope. I’m doing it for equality and social justice.

“Lastly, I’m doing it in honour of my beloved ones. My late mom and dad, my late mom- and dad-in-law, late friends who touched and impacted my life.”

Last month he took to social media to question how his family and others in poor communities will be able to practise the government's Covid-19 sanitisation guidelines on washing their hands when they have no water.

“My cry is for my family and fellow villagers, who are advised to wash hands regularly, but there is still no water supply.”