The Tshwane metro apologised profusely to the community of Pretoria for the inconvenience caused by the graves that were left undug last week Tuesday. Undertakers, family and friends of the deceased arrived at the Zandfontein cemetery only to find that no graves had been dug. One funeral had to be postponed to the next day, while another carried on with the coffin remaining above ground and yet another had to be postponed until a grave could be dug.
To avoid such issues from recurring, the metro’s spokesperson, Selby Bokaba, said that they had a short-term contingency plan in place at the cemetery. “A grave-digging machine (TLB) has been stationed on-site to ensure no recurrence of this nature.”
According to Bokaba, the metro initially made arrangements for the provision of a burial site prior to the funerals that were scheduled for the particular day. “It was unfortunate that despite confirmation with the service provider, the machinery used for the digging of graves (TLB) arrived late at the cemetery. Upon realising the challenges with the service provider, a back-up plan was activated to ensure finalisation of the burial process,” Bokaba added.
He also mentioned that the metro was currently in the process of contracting graduates of the Tshepo 10 000 programme who underwent training at institutions of higher learning to improve their skills in various infrastructure fields so that they could form cooperatives and become entrepreneurs. “The youngsters who are unemployed will be contracted as grave-diggers, as the metro has identified this as one of the opportunities for job creation among the unemployed youth, who constitute the majority of the citizens of Pretoria.”
