A heavily waterlogged cemetery caused considerably more trauma to the already devastated families, who had gathered for two funerals, which had not only been postponed but also overlapped each other, due to the unforeseen dilemma.
Www.mobserver.co.za was called to the scene by a concerned Pastor as well as local funeral services, who had to divert the attention of mourners while they improvised on a way to drain the graves.
Mr Andre van Wyk from Roseleigh Funeral Services emphasised his discontentment with the municipal strike saying that the flooding, which is a fairly usual problem experienced at the cemetery, remains the responsibility of the municipality to drain.
The resurfaced strike, however, has now forced funeral parlours to call on the services of contractors to drain the graves with bilge pumps, at the extra expense of the families.
The Pastor, who asked to remain anonymous, described how they had to usher the family away from the cemetery, while they tried to drain the grave of water.
This delayed the funeral and resulted in the two funerals overlapping each other.
They also pointed out that the grave they were draining for the funeral, kept filling with water while they waited for the neighbouring funeral to proceed.
Water was siphoning from their grave into three others next to them. Two freshly closed graves were also sinking away because of the building water.
“The municipality should have someone on standby, or hire contractors to continue with the services that have been interrupted by the strike. It is unacceptable to expect families to empty out the graves at their own expense. There is also no TLB available to fill the graves, and now that struggle also falls onto the families,” the Pastor said.
Mr van Wyk mentioned that a municipal employee stationed at the cemetery has tried helping before, but was assaulted twice by other strikers for working during the strike.
