The crisis of full graveyards in the eThekwini municipality has led to a debacle where municipal staff allocated burial space to a grave that was already full and leased to another family.
The Mkhize family from uMbumbulu, south of Durban is now having to source funds to rebury their son elsewhere.
They were allocated the burial space in 2020 at Mobeni cemetery. However, they were allocated space on top of a grave that had already been fully leased. It was leased by the Mhlongo family from Umlazi township.
Allocated grave seemed shallow
According to Thobile Mkhize, she wanted the burial space to bury her son, Nkanyiso Sibisi. He passed away during the Covid-19 period in early 2020.
Speaking to Sunday World, she said he was concerned when she noticed that the grave was not deep enough.
“When I raised that the cemetery staff from eThekwini municipality said there was nothing wrong. We ended up burying my son on top of bodies of people we did not even know because we needed the space,” she said.
A few months later, Mkhize got a call, and she was notified that her son was buried in the wrong grave.
“The grave was said to be full, and it was leased to another family. We were told to exhume him and bury him somewhere. Well, I have no issue with that, as I wanted to take my son to our ancestral cemetery in Umbumbulu.
Municipality won’t foot full reburial costs
“Now, my issue is that I feel insulted by the municipal officials. They are saying they will only give us a coffin and a hearse for the reburial process. They are being unreasonable because we have to conduct a fresh funeral. And they should cater to it, since this was their mistake. I have been up and down to their offices. And they are not willing to listen to us about the matter,” Mkhize alleged.
The Mhlongo family confirmed and showed Sunday World proof that the grave belongs to them. It showed that they have a lease to have only their family members buried there.
A family member, Lindiwe Mhlongo, said she picked up the extra corpse inside their burial space in 2020, five years after they last buried a family member.
“I went to the cemetery to identify and clear the grave while preparing to erect a proper tombstone for my mother. I got lost and could not locate it because they had erected a concrete cross on top of it. And I wasn’t able to locate it until I was helped by the cemetery staff. Then I located it and found an extra body.
Owner family wants to erect tombstone
“The extra burial has delayed our plan to erect a proper tombstone. This as the municipality said it was still in talks with the other family that buried an extra body on top of our family members,” Mhlongo said.
The municipality had not responded at the time this report was compiled. Its communication unit said it has a turnaround time of 24 hours or depending on the availability of information. The comment would be added as soon as it is received.
