GALLERY: Westpark Cemetery leaves Mother’s Day visitors upset
MONTGOMERY PARK – Families are shocked and angry at the state of Westpark Cemetery.
Community members who have loved ones laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery are shocked at the maintenance of the cemetery.
Alta du Preez said that she went to visit her daughter’s grave at Westpark Cemetery and she was shocked that the state of the graveyard had not improved since the last time she was there two months ago. “The important and famous people’s graves are cleaned and maintained well but the other parts of the cemetery look shocking,” said Du Preez.
She said that on Mother’s Day lots of people took shovels to visit loved ones to clean around their graves. “The people in charge of the cemetery do not have any respect for our loved ones,” said Du Preez. She said that she has been visiting the cemetery for the past five years and always gets excuses about the condition of the cemetery.
Another angry community member Stephen Baragwanath said that he also visited the cemetery on Mother’s Day and he noticed again that the grass and the weeds were overgrown. “It is a total disgrace and so disrespectful to our passed loved ones,” said Baragwanath.
He said that the cemetery insists families should not install full gravestones as they want to plant grass and yet this is not done. “We pay for a full grave, that should entitle us to install a full grave stone should we so choose,” he said. He said that there are areas in the cemetery where the grass and weeds are so long that you cannot even see that there is a grave.
Baragwanath said that when he complains, he is told that the contractors responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery are on strike, “Surely they are not on strike for years and years,” he said.
Ward 88 councillor Pat Richards said, “I have contacted Joburg City Parks and Zoo and I was assured that they are aware of the cemetery being unkept and they are on it.”
Joburg City Park’s manager for cemeteries, Reggie Moloi, commented,” We are dealing with it and sourcing funding for a contractor.” He said that most of the budget is used during the peak and rainy seasons from October to March and that towards the end of the yearly quarter the budget is already stretched out.
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