Head stone saga continues at Heatherly cemetery

Mamelodi and Nellmapius families who buried their loved ones at Heatherly cemetery have been forced to hold back their tombstone unveiling ceremonies.

They claimed that the Tshwane metro has yet to find a contractor to pour concrete slabs on which graves head tombstones are to be erected.

Annah Moya (63) of Mahube Valley in Mamelodi East complained her husband’s tombstone unveiling ceremony did not go ahead last year.

She said her husband passed in June 2020 and was laid to rest at Heatherly cemetery.

She immediately started saving and planning for his tombstone unveiling on September 2021.

“The purpose of dedicating a headstone is to mark the final resting place for my husband and to easily identify his grave whenever we come to the cemetery,” said Moya.

She said she was told she could not erect the headstone as the metro has yet to pour the concrete slab on which his headstone is to be erected.

The family said everything was paid for including food, tent, tombstone, permit to erect the tombstone and invitations were send out.

She said all that was left was to erect the tombstone, “but we were told we could not or it would be confiscated and we be fined”.

Moya said: “Unfortunately we could not postpone because a lot of money was used and it will be wasted should we postpone”.

“We continued with the ceremony and we went to the cemetery with the tombstone and temporarily placed it on top of my husband’s grave for the pastor to bless it then we took it back home with us.

Moya said what has transpired because of the metro had given her high blood pressure.

“How long should we wait for Tshwane to pour the concrete slab?”

Another resident, Mokgohlwe Khumalo (71) said her husband also passed on and she has already paid for his headstone.

She said she is unable to set a date for the unveiling because of the metro’s delay in pouring the slab.

“The tombstones are very expensive and it’s in our culture to erect tombstones for our loved ones and we had been doing that for years,” said Khumalo.

“The Mamelodi West cemetery doesn’t insist that there be a slab before a tombstone is erected so why is Heatherly cemetery different?”

She said the Heatherly cemetery is the busiest in Mamelodi and every week people bury their loved ones there.

“We are kept in the dark by the metro about the concrete slab but threatened to confiscate our tombstones, should we erect them,” she said.

“We are pleading with the metro to speed up the process because the number of families who want to erect tombstones for their loved ones is growing every day.”

Khumalo said most family traditions dictate a tombstone be erected a year after burial and already there are a lot of families who buried their loved ones at Heatherly cemetery just last year.

“The head stones are not safe in storerooms, they are fragile and easily break… who is going to pay for the damage while we are waiting for the metro?”

The metro had yet to respond to the allegation at the time of publication.

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