Couple organise clean up of cemetery again
Families struggle to find graves in overgrowth
Alocal businessman and his wife have taken the initiative again to clean the overgrown Komani Cemetery themselves.
The cemetery was overgrown with tall weeds and long grass, leaving families with having to search for their loved ones’ graves.
After Shane and Debbie Meyer took the initiative to clean the cemetery, municipal workers were sent to do what is supposed to be their job.
Debbie Meyer said it started in 2019 when they saw the graveyard was in a shocking state.
With help from the community and businesses, they cleaned up the graveyard.
“When we got there last week, I was really shocked because I think it’s now 10 times worse than before. We tried to get some unemployed youth to come help to clean here.”
Luvuyo Mabandla said he could not find the grave of a friend in “the jungle”.
“There were so many weeds. I looked for his grave for two hours. The municipality needs to clean this cemetery to make it easy for us to find our people.”
Chwayita Makhaphela said the graveyard looked like a forest. “The weeds are as tall as I am. The municipality should respect the dead.
“We believe that as much as our loved ones have departed, they are still with us and we also want to be able to visit them.
Yolanda Moya-Jama said it was distressing to visit family members graves when the cemetery was in such a state.
“We want to hire someone to cut around our maternal grandmother’s grave but we don’t know where it is.
“When we asked for our grandmother’s grave site they couldn’t help us. They said the records went up in flames with the town hall, ” she said.
Municipal spokesperson Lonwabo Kowa said: “The municipality has a duty to maintain parks and cemeteries throughout Enoch Mgijima.
“Maintenance work, including cleaning is done on a continuous basis. After recent rains there was massive growth of vegetation at the Komani cemetery. The municipality is currently organising requisite machinery for repairs.”
Municipal workers started cleaning the cemetery on Tuesday.