Old Witbank Cemetery has overgrown since it was last cut on Heritage Day.
After members of the community and the DA spent Heritage Day tidying up the old Witbank Cemetery and getting it into a condition becoming of a place of remembrance the Emalahleni Local Municipality has once again allowed the cemetery and its surroundings to deteriorate disgracefully.
Old Witbank Cemetery looked cleaned and well maintained at one stage when a cleanup was done on Heritage Day, now it is overrun again.
The festive season is generally the time of the year when many people go to the cemetery to visit the graves of relatives who passed away.
“Visitors who went this year expecting to see the area in a good condition would be bitterly disappointed at the state that it is now in,” said Mr Clive Hatch, resident of eMalahleni.
If you walk through the cemetery you will see that the weeds have once again taken root and the brush has again grown thick, masking graves and overrunning the cemetery – and still there has been no intervention by the Emalahleni Municipality.
The grass has begun to overrun the graves in Ekupumuleni Cemetery in Kwa-Guqa.
In addition to the Old Witbank Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in KwaGuqa is also in a very bad condition. The Ekupumuleni in Ackerville has been left in a bad state with overgrown grass and to make matters worse, some residents dumped in the cemetery.
In some parts of the cemetery the grass is so overgrown that criminal elements can be used to do their activities. Community members have raised their concerns about the cemetery, others are calling for relatives of the dearly departed to come and clean the grounds.
Both cemeteries are resting places to some of the well known figures in the community who played major roles in the community whether in development, education, sporting and other areas.
“We are aware of the state of the cemetery. It is maintained regularly, however we entered into the rainy season and hence grass grows faster on a more frequent basis. We have the maintenance of the cemetery on a rotational basis,” said Mr Kingdom Mabuza, Emalahleni Local Municipality Communications.
He added that currently the front phase has been cut, and they are on progress with cutting the tall grass.
“The cemetery is still being used by the community. We do conduct reburials, and there are graves that were reserved prior to the construction of the new cemetery. We have over eight cemeteries (active and non-active), a number of open spaces, some functional parks and other areas that get maintained regularly on a rotational basis. The cemetery forms part of the list of these facilities and areas,” he said.
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