Sewage spill that has washed through graves at the Mobeni Heights cemetery as a result of broken pipe has opened fresh wounds for a grieving KwaZulu-Natal family.
Lethinjabulo Phungula from Mpola in Marianhill said her routine visit to her parents’ resting place in April had turned to horror when she saw the damage to a handful of graves that included her parents’.
They were buried on December 7 after gunmen stormed their home and killed them.
“In our efforts to get the municipality to resolve, this we have even resorted to inquiring about the possibility of exhuming the bodies ourselves and then maybe wait for the compensation from the municipality,” said Phungula.
She said they were told by municipal officials at the time the pipe couldn’t be “closed” because it would impact on a block of flats nearby.
The family had planned to bury their loved ones in Phoenix before a municipal official informed them about the availability of the grave site in Mobeni.
She said exhumation would be a lengthy process, so they went back to the municipality for more answers but were told “we will escalate” the matter.
“What we get is halfhearted sympathy. We are being sent from pillar to post,” said Phungula.
She said this has also scuppered the family’s plans to unveil the tombstone. “We were planning to have the unveiling in December to coincide with the year’s anniversary of the passing of my family.
“I doubt that this will happen at this rate,” said Phungula.
The city has not kept up with the rapid urbanisation. There is poor planning. You have to ask yourself that with such an influx of people, where are they going to be buried?
— ActionSA provincial chairperson Zwakele Mncwango
ActionSA provincial chairperson Zwakele Mncwango and fellow eThekwini councillor Ahmed Paruk slammed the municipality for their “disrespect to the departed”.
He said this was another reason his party was hauling the troubled municipality before the courts for the ongoing sewage crises throughout the metro.
Mncwango said the municipality was dogged by these infrastructural issues because of poor planning.
“The city has not kept up with the rapid urbanisation. There is poor planning. You have to ask yourself that with such an influx of people, where are they going to be buried?” said Mncwango.
Mncwango said the Mpola family’s predicament cuts deep.
“As Africans, when our loved ones depart, we are normally of the view that they are resting. The fact that it’s African people who have not heard the families’ pleas is beyond me,” said Mncwango.
He said there was a prevalent culture of a lack of accountability that needs to be rooted out at the municipality.
“This is unacceptable because the people who are affected are the ratepayers of the city,” said Mncwango.
Another solution that can be explored by the municipality if it wishes to counter the infrastructural challenges, would be to compensate residents who bury their loved ones in rural areas.
“This would obviously make sense because you find that most of the people who live in Durban have roots in rural areas,” said Mncwango.
eThekwini head of water and sanitation Ednick Msweli, who later visited the cemetery, concluded that the sewer pipe had been damaged by the digging of a grave.
“It could have been our own municipality or a family which was trying to open up a grave. Unfortunately in the process they have damaged our sewer pipe. That is now causing pollution and damage,” said Msweli.
He said the three or four damaged graves necessitated a contractor to remedy the situation.
“We responded as quickly as possible after we became aware. We will dispatch our team to assess what the extent of the damage is,” said Msweli.
He said to prevent future occurrences, the unit would request markers to be installed in cemeteries so that grave diggers are aware of where sewer and water lines run.
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