Municipality advised to exhume and rebury 47 bodies

The families of the 47 bodies in Ventersorp that were buried in the flooded graveside will finally have peace of mind after the constitutional body recommended that the NW405 municipality should exhume and rebury the 47 bodies at another gravesite.
According to Mr Kgositoi Sedupane, the senior manager of legal services of CRL Rights Commission (the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities) the municipality has been given 14 days from 10 March to engage with the affected families. ‘The municipality will be financially confined to the amount of R300 000. Each family will conduct and perform its rituals, if any, at its own cost. A court application, if required by law, should be filed on 3 April this year to allow the municipality to start with the process of exhumation and re-interment,’ he said. Francinah Mathongwane, a member of one of the affected families, says she is pleased with the sterling work done by CRL to move their loved ones. ‘The municipality took more than a year and could not assist us or present any report on the flooded graves,’ she said. ‘My loved ones will be able to rest in peace.
‘The traditional rituals I am going to perform before the exhumation include talking to the ancestors and letting them know that they are being moved to another place. This is important in my Tswana culture,’ she said.
Khuduga Dibe, a representative of one of the affected families says they welcome the CRL’s decision. He says it’s unfortunate that they had to go the legal route to make the government aware that what they did was wrong.
‘It also proved that the government does not value the dead. We are glad that we are about to find closure, though we doubt that the municipality will act in 14 days as ruled by the commission. They failed to do so during the mediation process with the CRL Commission last year. This municipality does not respect its community, we are just a number to them – not human beings who deserve better,’ he said.
According to Dibe, the burials will take place at the graveyard in town.
Burst pipe caused flooding, says council
The council spokesperson, Willie Maphosa, says council appointed Moedi Consulting Engineers to determine the suitability of the area for burials earlier this year. The report has since been released and shows the ground to be suitable for burials.
‘The area is not a wetland as it is conventionally believed. The water that swamped the area was actually the result of a burst water pipe nearby that has since been repaired,’ he says. ‘Nevertheless, the municipality has engaged with the affected families as well as the CRL. The last meeting with the families took place on Friday in the presence of the CRL. At this meeting, council committed to assisting with the reburials for those families who still wish to go this route regardless of the Moedi results.
‘Council budgeted for these reburials in the recent adjustment budget and those families who wish to do so have until 17 March to take a decision and approach the municipality in this regard,’ he says.