Concerned members of the community took it upon themselves to go and clean up graves even at high risk from lurking criminals who will mug them of their valuable cell phones, personal jewelry and sometimes threaten their lives. Some will even mention instances of rapes or serious body injuries at these secluded hideouts for criminals.
These industrious hard working unemployed criminals had found a new gold mine of stripping any carbon, aluminum or stainless steel metal inside the cemetery.
Their loot is hidden bolts holding the concrete fences, wreaths and ornaments on graves plus saleable unmarked marble stones to new markets far from eMalahleni.
It is advisable not to pester these criminals by being in their domain at awkward hours after 15:00 when very few members of the community are around for easy protection. You will become an easy catch and a vulnerable victim. Whilst these acts of violence can also happen at home, the cemetery will not provide immediate protection and defense.
The deceased family friends, great grandparents, husbands, and wives created beautiful gardens and planted trees that we see around eMalahleni.
In contrast, their dead bodies lie around shrubs, thongs, kikuyu grass and ground roots tearing apart the most very expensive impressive granite tomb because of neglect. This is after we solemnly asked them to Rest in Peace.
Emalahleni Municipality is responsible for the upkeep and cleanliness of the graves as we are levied for these as part of service delivery. Currently the tarmac is being cleared for easy access. Unavailable rubbish bins make it easy to throw out empty water and beer bottles through car windows. Paper tissues are strewn around graves for the wind to have a jolly good play. Gate entry boards calling for ‘Keep the cemetery clean’ for a better serene environment to the departed. A ‘lookable’ suburb for the dead.
The question is, if the municipality does not do it, who must do it? Scriptural, the worried Nehemia could not stand dirty cemeteries, he went to the then mayor of his city for a letter of permission to clean up tombs of his relatives.
If we do not keep watch on these graves, our grandchildren will have good reasons why they will not worry about them too.
The history of cemeteries is both scriptural and traditional. With our loved ones buried and preserved at prescribed municipal areas, does not make that area a human dumping ground. On the contrary, it is a transition from life to death in the humane preservation of whatever remains out of a human body.
The Quran, the Bible, thew Torah, African Religion, Pagan Festivals, Buddhism, Occult/Satanism, the Pentateuch, and the Rastafarian all carry chapters and verses on the dead at the graveyard or crematorium.
In 1980 I went to the graveyard of William Shakespeare and Henry Longfellow at the Westminster Abbey, London. UK. Also a tomb of Robert Raikes who coined the word Sunday School in 1780 at St. Marry the Crypt, Gloucester, UK. I ended up in the tomb of Jesus Christ above Golgotha in Simon of Armathea’s garden yard and Abraham in the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Israel. That includes my visit to the tomb of George Washington (Mount Vernon) in Washington DC, USA and the Pharaohs in Cairo, Egypt in 1996
In South Africa we still go to graves of our historic heroes like Tshaka, or Voortrekker Hoogte Memorial which does not exclude our close loved ones, as it will be witnessed this Lent/Passover/Easter period. All these are observed for different reasons whether to celebrate the Crucifixion and Resurrection, venerate or revoke ancestors or the mere preservation of a human journey, from life to death with great respect.
