26 Jun 2018

Kgosi Gunny Moses of Monarch Customary Court is not impressed with the state of the old Phase 5 cemetery.

The situation at the cemetery would break even the bravest of hearts as neglected would best describe what has befallen the gravesite, with grass and shrubs as long as the height of a normal adult. 

Passage ways into the many graves there are not easily accessible and many of the graves are collapsing, with their shades missing or torn apart, while the old toilets and the drainage system are filthy and filled with plastics.

In an interview, Kgosi Moses stated that he was aware of the bad state of the Phase 5 cemetery and that he blamed the owners of the graves there and the city council for ignoring the old cemeteries. 

He suggested that a new fence be erected and a security guard be hired to protect the cemetery, noting that there had been cases of crime emanating from the cemeteries with some people stealing steel pipes from graves for commercial use and even stealing ornaments and shades from tombstones to resell.

“Nowadays Batswana no longer take care of cemeteries like they used to in the olden days. 

Once one is buried, people forget about them and their graves are left to collapse badly and it is not a good thing. 

We need to take care of our departed loved ones’ graves,” Kgosi Moses said. 

He said at times, visiting family graves was therapeutic and helped heal old wounds and that it can be a source of family unity, in that young children are sometimes taken to graves to be shown where their relatives, whom they never got to know are buried. 

“I have always consulted with the area councillor, Mr Godfrey Kaelo on the cemetery and last year we requested Ipelegeng workers to go and clear the bushes. I also hear a tower light will be erected there to deter criminals, that is a welcome development,” he noted.

Kgosi Moses however said the overall responsibility of that cemetery site remains with the residents, urging them to take care of their loved ones’ graves.

A resident of Phase 5 location, Mr Gopolang Almando stated that the bushy cemetery worried  their community because it exposed their location to criminals.

Mr Almando, who sits on the Monarch East Ward Development Committee (WDC), stated that they took a decision to have a tower light erected by the Phase 5 cemetery through the Constituency Development Fund.

“The tower light will at least give relief to the residents because the current situation is that when thieves break into our houses at night, they run into the bushy cemetery and we cannot follow them there for fear for our lives. Handbags, cell phones and laptop computers are snatched from residents walking past the cemetery in broad daylight,” he said.

Mr Almando noted that Monarch East WDC had an agreement with Selolwe WDC to clean the Phase 5 cemetery, while his WDC took care of the old Area 7 cemetery. 

On the issue of toilets and the drainage system at the cemetery, he argued that it was important that there be functioning toilets because people who check on their family members’ graves need them, lest they relief themselves anywhere, which would not be ideal. 

The toilet issue, he said, had been discussed between WDCs and was to be addressed.

He called for a unified community mobilisation led by leaders such as dikgosi, councillors and WDCs to create a schedule of attending to cemeteries. ENDS