“I come here to maintain my father’s grave,” *Jaco Hartzenberg explained, “I know the cemetery’s not in use anymore and that there won’t ever be any new graves, but does that mean we shouldn’t be taking care of the ones that are here already?”
Jaco stood, ankles black and shoes sooty, on the scorched earth between tombstones in Witbank Cemetery, also known as the Old Pretoria Road Cemetery (located next to Witbank Stadium).
Not only is the cemetery burned, with black blotches filling its carapace, but so too were an array of empty glass liquor bottles scattered amongst the dead.
“I assume the liquor bottles come from the druggies and drunks that hang out here sometimes. They come through there,” Jaco said,
motioning towards a hole in the fence, “and come and have a good time here between the marble slabs. You do get tired of having to pick up empty Russian Bear bottles from your father’s gravestone, or throwing away empty condom packets, but it’s not the litter that worries me the most. I’ve seen who sets these fires, and it looks like municipal workers to me. I believe they might be setting these fires in order to keep the grass short – so that they don’t have to personally come in and cut it.”
Jaco’s suspicions are not supported by more than personal speculation, and at the time of publication it remains unknown who (or what) is really causing these fires in the cemetery – although they have been a recurring problem in this particular cemetery since April 2015 (four years ago).
“Some of these graves are more than 100 years old, and every time I come here they look worse and worse. The smoke is slowly turning them black, or they’re cracking and chipping from being exposed to extreme heat. I just feel like somebody should take responsibility for the way that this cemetery looks; and I feel that that ‘somebody’ should be the municipality.”
Walking among the gravestones, it’s obvious why Jaco is upset. The cemetery is indeed filled with litter, whilst a large area of it had been reduced to ash by fire.
We walked past an old glove lying propped up against a remembrance stone, and came across a woman who had come to the graveyard to maintain her grandmother’s grave.
“I agree with Jaco,” said Eileen Lock, “I’ve just watched this cemetery age terribly over the years, and I don’t feel safe coming alone anymore either. Surely the municipality must be able to stop the vandalism taking place? Someone should be sent to prison for arson for lighting fires in the cemetery. It’s disgustingly disrespectful. This ‘grave’ used to be my grandma; how can anyone not respect that?”
Kingdom Mabuza, spokesperson of Emalahleni Local Municipality, stated; “It is incorrect to suggest that Municipal workers are responsible for these fires. We condemn those who start fires at the cemetery because fire causes damage to the headstones. The Municipality does not burn grass in any of the cemeteries, but instead we cut grass on rotational basis.”
With the Municipality denying any involvement in the fires started at the Old Witbank Cemetery, the question remains – who are the arsonists, and why are they setting fire to a graveyard?
