A group of mourning friends and family nearly had to say their final goodbyes to their deceased loved one at the wrong grave at Sterkfontein Cemetery in Krugersdorp.
On 3 June an already sad and traumatic day was even further complicated when the son of the deceased discovered that hours before his mother’s funeral the grave of his already deceased father had still not been opened yet.
“I visited my father’s grave at 8am this morning where my mother would also be laid to rest when I discovered that the grave has not been open hours before the funeral,” says Marius van Eck.
Marius was requested to pay for the services up front in order for the gravediggers to continue their work.
“They (AVBOB) said I had to pay up front to prevent any problems of digging up the graves.”
He made the payment on Wednesday 29 May and on his arrival at the cemetery on Sunday 2 June, Marius received an unwelcome surprise; the grave was not dug up yet.
When arriving at the AVBOB offices early on the morning on the day of the funeral, one of the workers of AFBOB confirmed that the grave was well opened and that he had nothing to worry about.
“My gut feeling told me that I had to go make sure.”
On arrival, Marius discovered that the grave had not been opened as confirmed by the AVBOB official earlier that morning.
Instead, another grave, approximately six graves from where his father was laid to rest, had been opened.
The deceased of that grave matched the date of which his father was laid to rest yet it was still the wrong grave.
After the funeral ceremony, mourning family members and friends had to wait about 10 minutes for the workers to measure the specs of the correct grave.
The deceased was finally laid to rest in the correct grave.
The personnel at the Sterkfontein Cemetery could unfortunately not give any comments to the NEWS. The NEWS was referred to an alternative contact person who could not be reached.
