Residents, and members and volunteers of AfriForum are upset after they recently went to Secunda Cemetery to clean it and were chased away.

According to Rika Serfontein, whose daughter is buried there, she took part in AfriForum’s project to clean the area in honour of her child.

“A man who seems to work there, stopped us and demanded that we leave. He said that he charges R150 per grave to clean,” said Serfontein.

Hennie Bekker, the district co-ordinator for AfriForum, said officials from Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) prevented AfriForum and the community from cleaning the cemetery.

Jan du Plessis, AfriForum’s Secunda branch chairperson, said the morning of February 24 began without any problems, and volunteers began mowing the lawn and picking up rubbish.

After about an hour, municipal officials arrived and said that according to the municipality’s by-laws, only the municipality could maintain and clean the cemetery.

“This comes when there is no upkeep or maintenance done at the cemetery,” said Du Plessis.

However, after he revisited the cemetery a week later, the lawn had been mowed, but the rest of the cemetery and the buildings were still in a bad state.

“We hear rumours that certain municipal officials are accepting bribe money to maintain specific graves,” said Du Plessis.

“If these rumours are true, it is unacceptable and an illegal practice since it is already part of the municipality’s duties to do maintenance there.”

AfriForum informed the municipality on February 29 that if they fail to maintain the cemetery, the Teks AfriForum branch will continue with their cleaning project.

AfriForum aims to do this cleaning monthly at the cemetery. Another resident with loved ones buried at the cemetery, Rina Coetzee, said she moved to Middelburg in the meantime and came to Secunda two weeks ago to visit the cemetery.

“I was shocked to see the cemetery’s condition. My late husband and son are buried between weeds and alcohol bottles,” said Coetzee.

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“I also do not feel safe as a woman alone to go there because there were people who seemed up to no good, sitting in their vehicles and later driving like it was a Kyalami track.”

AfriForum also stepped in at Davies Court Centre, which the municipality fails to maintain.

“We cleaned up at Davies Court because many of Secunda’s elderly live there,” said Du Plessis.

He encouraged the community to get involved with AfriForum by visiting www.wordlid.co.za

The Ridge Times contacted Donald Green, the spokesperson for the GMM, for comment and asked him about:

• Is the man charging R150 per grave employed by the municipality? If he is, does he not get a salary to maintain the area if the community are not allowed to do upkeep and clean their loved ones’ graves?

• Is there a law preventing people from cleaning graves? If there is, which by-law is it?
Green merely said the graves are the families’ property, and they are responsible for keeping them clean.

He referred the community to the municipal call centre and the municipality’s website, where the by-laws are stipulated.

He failed to answer the Ridge Times’ questions about the man charging R150 to clean graves.