VIDEO: Lefpa cleans mass grave of 1949 train disaster
See the video of the train disaster here.
WATERVAL BOVEN – Lefpa did not only remember Nelson Mandela on July 18, but also the victims of the 1949 train disaster when they cleaned and repainted their mass grave on the day.
November 16, 1949 is a date that will always be remembered in Waterval Boven, as well as in many homes in neighbouring Mozambique. It was in the early hours of the morning on this day 69 years ago, that 63 Mozambican mine workers tragically lost their lives in one of the worst rail disasters ever to have occurred in South Africa.
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A mass grave was erected in their honour in the Waterval Boven cemetery. It was declared a National Heritage Site and has since become dilapidated. Welsh Green, the driver who perished in the incident, lies buried in a quiet corner of the old cemetery and took the secrets of what really happened in the accident to his grave.
Mpumalanga Heritage chairman, Duncan Ballantyne, informed the Lefpa team of the horrific state of the gravesite as well as the rest of the cemetery.
“Due to the lack of maintenance of the grave described to us by Duncan, we decided to intervene and do a clean-up. We cleaned the first section of the cemetery and plan to do the second section soon,” said Lefpa manager, André Scheepers. Lefpa also adopted the spot as one of its many protection sites around the Lowveld.
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