‘Can’t find mom’: Families struggle to locate graves in waterlogged cemetery

A distraught James Rantwa shouts at the sky, “I can’t find my mother’s grave” after spending hours trying to locate it in the waterlogged Kagiso Cemetery, west of Johannesburg.

Rantwa was trying to find his mother’s grave, but couldn’t locate it and he suspected it might be one of those that was sunk in water.

At least 2 000 graves have been submerged or fallen through while some are on the verge of collapse in one section of the cemetery.

On entering, it appears to be a dignified area in which the dead are buried peacefully. But as you drive further in, it’s a different story.

There are puddles of water all over the section of the graveyard, which make it difficult for families to walk around as they fear they might fall into graves that are no longer visible.

Rantwa said he had heard from the community that the graves had sunk into the ground because of excess water. This prompted him to come and see for himself.

“I am stressed and confused; I know I put a tombstone but I can’t even find it. I know the grave was here, but I can’t find or get any sign of its existence. When you look at the graves, all of them have been sunk by the water so how do I find my mother’s grave now?” he asked.

He questioned why the municipality had built a gravesite in an area that was waterlogged.

“You know it’s not like when a person is dead and buried, they are not a person anymore, they are still people,” he said.

The graveyard appears to have been built in a wetland, which is commonly known for having a flow of water throughout the year.

But Mogale City municipality spokesperson Nkosana Zali said this had not been the case, and that the current condition of the graveyards was “merely” caused by a natural phenomenon.

“The area experiencing waterlogging was historically never affected and burials were taking place without any challenges. The recent waterlogging is believed to be a natural phenomenon, which is experienced on a regional scale,” Zali said.

“The municipality holds the view that this shallow water table is only temporary due to above-average rainfall and can be addressed through engineering interventions in the short-medium timeframes.”

Despite these challenges, the municipality continues to allow burials to take place at the cemetery, said the affected families.

They expressed concern that some of the people buried there had died of various diseases including Covid and were worried that the water was flowing back into communities.

According to those whose loved ones are buried here, the municipality only dug trenches for the water to flow in a downward direction to the nearby community to solve the issue.

But Zali said a dedicated budget was in place and engineering inputs were being sourced to address the waterlogged area.

Probed on how long it would take to resolve the issue as the situation appeared to be dire for the affected, he said:

“The timeframes are dependent on the engineering inputs and assessment of the extent of the waterlogged areas. However, the municipality has already started to dig cut-off trenches to divert excess water away from the graves.”

Not only do the affected families grapple with the reality of being unable to locate their loved ones’ graves, but they also fear that if they are located, they will have to pay thousands of rands to rebury their loved ones – something they had never expected.

Lulu Nyathi, another community member whose loved one is buried in the same graveyard, said she noticed water in the graveyard around January last year.

However, despite allegedly informing the municipality, nothing had been done resulting in the problem getting worse, she said.