The Eastern Cape’s road of bones

Driving into Hankey‚ the eerie sight of graves – just a couple of metres from the road – greets visitors to a town where the cemeteries are so full residents are forced to bury their dead on top of each other.

But the problem‚ which is especially bad in Hankey‚ can be found in many of the other small towns in the Kouga region of the Eastern Cape‚ with Patensie’s last available plots almost full‚ while elsewhere‚ space is running out fast.

DESPAIRING DAD: Farmworker Hendrik Windvogel kneels next to his daughter’s roadside grave just outside Hankey Picture: Riaan Marais

There are some graveyards with limited burial space still left‚ but the costs are prohibitive for many of the unemployed and indigent residents.

Rebecca Roberts‚ of Patensie undertaker PW Killian‚ said the problem was widespread and they often did not know what to tell people.

“We have clients in Hankey who struggle to bury their loved ones because there is no space‚” she said.

“The grave sites are full‚ our clients come to us and we direct them to the municipality to look for a space.

“The one grave site in Ramaphosa township is used up. Even the new one in town is almost full.”

Roberts said that at the only graveyard with space still available‚ plots cost R800 which‚ in a town with such high levels of unemployment‚ was out of reach for many.

“I know this because I buried my husband last year and had to pay that amount‚” she said.

“People in this area are poor – they cannot afford that money.”

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- TMG Digital/The Herald