A local organisation, The Economic Liberators Forum South Africa (ELF-SA), held a clean-up campaign at Mamelodi West cemetery on Tuesday and has expressed disappointment about the state of the cemetery.

Chairperson of the Mamelodi branch Vincent Maluleke said despite cemeteries being a sacred place where loved ones are laid to rest, the cemeteries in Mamelodi appear to be paid no respect by the metro.

The Tshwane metro has since responded, promising to cut all the overgrown grass before the Easter weekend, but Maluleke said the state of the cemetery is so poor that it cannot wait another three weeks.

Maluleke continued, saying that people visit their loved ones constantly, not just at Easter.

His main worry is a sewer that is leaking into the cemetery, and it looks like this sewer has been overflowing for a very long time, as a tarred road has been damaged by the outflow.

He said, “The disappointment at the cemetery is the overflowing sewerage inside the cemetery with unbearable stench.

“We were cleaning and cutting overgrown grass inside the cemetery, but we placed our health at risk inhaling the bad smell,” said Maluleke.

Sibongile Sithole from ELF-SA said the Tshwane metro does not take care of the township cemeteries

“If you compare Mamelodi cemeteries with other cemeteries, especially in the suburbs like Garsfontein, Silverton and other suburbs, [those cemeteries] are all well looked after.”

Sithole added that in Mamelodi, there are about four cemeteries, of which all have overgrown grass.

The cemeteries pose danger for all people visiting their loved ones, especially in Mamelodi, because the cemetery has now turned into a hideout for criminals who target people on their way to Eersterust.

Sithole added that the clean-up campaign continued, despite the stink of the sewage.

The overflowing sewer has also affected residents of Section B3 and Sun Valley in Ward 67, where residents claim they have been reporting the matter to municipal offices in Mamelodi since last year.

Maluleke said the overflowing sewage runs along the tar road in the cemetery, and then into the Sun Valley area, where it has started entering Sun Valley houses.

ELF-SA challenged the metro to bring service delivery to the people of Mamelodi and to stop focusing on bringing service delivery to the suburbs.

Maluleke added there is no time to waste, as the Easter Weekend is around the corner, and this time of year brings hundreds of families to Mamelodi cemeteries to visit their loved ones’ final resting place.

“How are they going to walk around the cemetery with overgrown grass and [an] overflowing sewer?”

In November last year, Rekord reported that a family living in Sun Valley were forced to move their 19-month-old daughter to a safer home due to the smell and health worries.

The family claimed that they could no longer bear the smell and that they had been polite and patient with the municipality for some time.

Residents of Section B3 are also claiming that the overflowing sewage is putting their health at risk because they are forced to inhale the bad air for months.

Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo stated in November last year that the sewer is cleared continuously.

“The sewer at the cemetery is frequently blocked due to the stormwater ingress. It overflows mostly in summer during rainy seasons, and other than that, the sewer network gets blocked by foreign objects and non-degradable materials disposed of into the sewer network by residents.”

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