Nelson Mandela Day is a day to commemorate the first black president in South Africa, Nelson Mandela. South Africans around the country take 67 minutes to honour and celebrate this legend by doing great gestures around the country. Friends of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, and City Parks spent Mandela Day planting a tree in Braamfontein cemetery to remember those whose ashes were vandalized a few months ago and restoring ash walls that were scattered with no indication of where they belong.
The ashes were put into the ground, and an olive tree was planted on top. Eventually, a plaque and a bench will be placed for those who wish to spend a quiet moment in what is turning out to be a memorial garden with other trees that have been planted in remembrance of lost loved ones.
“During trying to tidy up the ash walls, we found a lot of ash lying on the ground and packets didn’t have names on them, and we decided that we have to bury those ashes’ dignity because we couldn’t match them with the ash walls, and we decided to plant a tree to remember them by it,” said Sarah Welham, founder of Friends of Johannesburg Cemeteries (FOJC).
The Friends also spent the rest of Mandela Day morning clearing sword ferns and weeds out of one of the ash walls that were destroyed a few months ago. Over the next few months, this part of the cemetery, which already has other memorial trees, will be turned into a quiet place of reflection with a bench and paving.
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Work begins to restore 5 000 vandalised ash walls at Braamfontein Cemetery
