“We do respect the dead and their families”

The Makhado Municipality has assured residents of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) that they do respect the dead and their grieving families.

This followed a public outcry after several incidents where grieving community members had to stand beside an open grave, aggravated by the fact that the graves had been dug in an asymmetrical and unprofessional manner.

The municipality denied, however, that graves in the municipal cemetery had been dug asymmetrically and unprofessionally. They do, however, welcome suggestions from the community. “If you have some suggestions, they are welcomed. The municipality has always dug the graves in a professional manner,” the municipality said in a press statement last week.

A photo had been sent to the municipality of a grave where the right-hand bottom corner of the open grave was only a few centimetres from an adjacent grave and the top right-hand corner almost 40cm away from the same adjacent grave. The grave was visibly out of line with other adjacent graves.

“We do not understand when you say unprofessional, because our backactor operator, who is very experienced in his job, tried his best to assist the family. Unfortunately, there was very limited space between the graves. It is the first time that we have receive this kind of complaint,” municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi said.

The question whether the municipality agreed that “graves should be rectangular, symmetrical … and not be skew” was answered in the negative.

Rev Jan Pretorius, who had been involved in similar incidents with other graves in the past, and who had more than once complained to the municipality, said that he would be available if a meeting at the cemetery could be arranged to explain what was meant by graves that are “symmetrical and in line”.

One good thing that came out of the debacle was that it would seem that the municipality’s female backactor operator, dubbed Cyclone Eliza by residents, has been relieved of her duties in the cemetery. This after her actions allegedly left several tombstones damaged and destroyed. Bobodi referred more than once to their “most experienced operator who had done his best although he was working in awkward conditions”. A local undertaker said that they did not see the female backactor operator in the cemetery anymore. The municipality refused to give the names of any backactor operators. “It would be very unprofessional to give newspapers the names of our employees. The municipality takes the responsibility,” Bobodi said.

The municipality was asked why they used a backactor to dig the graves.
“What do you suggest we should use? The backactor is the best machinery that we use to dig the graves and we have been using it for years,” Bobodi said. Pretorius, however, said that spades and picks had been used in the past, as well as a measuring tape.

Ms Gerda Nagel of Martin’s Funerals added that they had of late been hiring a TLB at their own cost to do the digging, but that the opening of the grave has to be completed and made neat and correct by hand, using a spade and pick.

“A normal grave should be 850cm in width, 2.2m long and 1.83m (the old six feet) deep, unless it is a double grave, which is deeper. We feel that it is an embarrassment for the grieving family if the open graves are crooked. That is why we do it ourselves now, although the municipality still charges a fee for the opening and closing of the grave,” Nagel said.

News - Date: 01 August 2014

Linda van der Westhuizen

Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.

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