Residents whose loved ones lie in any of the area’s cemeteries have to prepare themselves for a shock if they want to visit.

To get to the Carletonville graveyard, one must first navigate the badly dilapidated road to the facility. This road probably has more potholes than tarred surface. In many places, visitors would rather drive on the side of the road than on the road itself because it is safer.

Although many residents paid extra to have their relatives buried in this graveyard’s special garden section where the Merafong City Local Municipality was responsible for maintaining the graves, this does not seem to make any difference to the municipality. The grass on and between the graves in this section is higher than the headstones in many places.

Heaps of broken branches are lying in places, and the long grass even obscures the benches for visitors to sit on. The condition of the graveyard shows that the municipality treats everyone equally, as even the memorial gravesite of the former struggle union trailblazer Elijah Barayi is severely overgrown.

Meanwhile, at the Fochville graveyard, things are no better. Tall weeds and veld flowers grow higher than many of the gravestones. The paths between the different parts of this graveyard are also getting narrower due to all the weeds and grass growing over the sidewalk onto the road surfaces.

When the Herald visited the graveyard on Friday, 26 January, it did not seem as if much work had recently been done on the new graveyard adjacent to the old one. The ablution facility still does not have windows and heaps of paving bricks lie scattered among the long grass in the veld. This new graveyard is being built because space is running out in the old one.

Khutsong South’s graveyard is the newest and biggest of Khutsong’s cemeteries. As far as could be determined, it is the only one where people are currently being buried. Here, the situation is just as bad. In most places, graves are obscured under the long grass and high stems of pink veld flowers growing wild all over the facility.

On Tuesday, the Herald asked the municipality when the graveyards would receive attention.

“The grass-cutting programme is underway. The grass in cemeteries and graveyards will be cut soon,” answered the municipal spokesperson. “Cashflow issues due to delayed payments from the municipality and inclement weather delayed the progress on site.”

Regarding the work at the new graveyard, the spokesperson said the turnkey contractor was paid on 29 January 2024. They are still in the initial contract period. The planned completion date is 28 February 2024.