A devotee of the Nazareth Baptist Church dressed in a traditional attire from the Ekuphakameni group, also known as the Shembe Church, prays at the Nhlangakazi Holy Mountain in Ndwedwe, 85 kilometres north of Durban, on January 7, 2024. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP)
Business people should not prevent people from accessing their ancestral heritage sites for ritual purposes, says Zolani Mkiva, general secretary of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa).
Mkiva was concerned after it was established there are several cases in which people claim that they are being denied access to their ancestral sacred sites – such as family burial sites and other related areas – which have been developed for economic purposes.
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“Africans are spiritual beings and our values and belief system is anchored on our spirituality,” said Mkiva.
“We have a biological and have spiritual relationship with our ancestors. Their blood flows in our veins and we are made of their bones.
“We carry their hopes and we are responsible for their legacy. We are custodians of their heritage. They are us and we are them.
“It therefore stands to reason that we should have access to their graves so that we can pay respects and intercede with them. In so doing, we converse with them and ask for their blessings to our deeds and guidance to our thought process.”
Mkiva said there was no law allowing the entities to interfere with the cultural beliefs of the people as is their human right to perform rituals in the areas where they have laid to rest their loved ones.
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He said denying people access to the site of their ancestors was a crime against humanity.
“In a post-colonial and apartheid dispensation, this prevention of people to access their ancestral graves should not be allowed,” he said.
“A constructive way should be found so that our people are not violated and antagonised by being prevented from accessing what belongs to them.”
One of the recent incidents is an ongoing legal battle in which Mpumalanga families opened cases against Mafube Coal Mine for allegedly relocating the graves of their family members without consent.
They allege the remains were relocated to unknown locations which made it hard for them to communicate with their departed loved ones.
Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal tribal council, known as EbuNguni Royal Council, has accused the iSimangaliso Wetland Park management of not giving them free access to the burial site regarded as sacred within the park.
Herold Likhuleni, senior member of the Oral History Association of South Africa, shared the same sentiments with Contralesa that people must not be denied access to their ancestral sacred sites.
“Denying people access to the sacred sites is wrong because every human being would want to evoke the spirit from above to be able to assist them,” said Likhuleni.
“People should not be deprived of their freedom of religion. The graves indicate their ancestors once lived in that particular area – meaning it is their heritage site.”
The South African Heritage Resources Agency, a national administrative body responsible for the protection of South Africa’s cultural heritage, “provides formal protection of culturally significant graves and all graves which are older than 60 years, within and outside a cemetery [such as ancestral graves in rural areas] are also protected”.
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