Peaceful haven of remembrance

West Park Cemetery is a lush and treed resting place, where the purple jacaranda blooms offer solace to mourners.
A STONE’S throw from the vibrant, lively suburb of Melville lies West Park Cemetery, which houses Johannesburg’s largest Jewish burial section – complete with a replica of the Wailing Wall.

Nkosi Johnson's graveChild Aids acitivist Nkosi Johnson's graveThe cemetery is located in the north of the Melville Koppies and is bordered by the suburbs of Montgomery Park, Sophiatown and Emmarentia.

Historically part of one of Joburg’s original farms, the cemetery was opened in 1942. It had been part of Farm Waterval, which was bought in 1887 by two Geldenhuys brothers who had hoped to find gold.

Later, wanting a dam, Louw Geldenhuys employed Anglo Boer War veterans to build Emmarentia Dam. Then, in 1933, 13 hectares of the farm were donated to the city for public recreation; eventually, along with other sections this land became the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, Marks Park Sports Club and West Park Cemetery.

In its handbook, Cemeteries and Crematoria, Johannesburg City Parks says West Park “holds one of the city’s high profile graves sections, with the graves of child Aids activist Nkosi Johnson, as well as those of struggle veterans, Alfred Nzo and Joe Modise”.

Herman Charles Bosman
Other notable graves in the grounds are those of Charles Herman Bosman, a Joburger and one of the country’s most talented writers, as well as the child victims of the Westdene Dam disaster.

City Parks, a section 21 company with the City as sole stakeholder, is responsible for managing Joburg’s parks, cemeteries, open green areas, street trees and conserved spaces.

As the custodian of this green heritage, West Park Cemetery falls under its portfolio, along with various other public burial grounds. West Park has mausoleums, memorial walls and memorial gardens, and its avenues are lined with large jacaranda trees that turn purple in the spring.

A memorial wall for cremated peopleA memorial wall for cremated peopleBesides have the largest Jewish section of the city’s gravesites, there is a Chinese section and a Muslim section. There are even paupers’ graves.

There are several war memorials and graves at West Park, and many ceremonial military parades have proceeded down Beyers Naude Drive to its gates.

“The cemetery is a lovely place for remembrance, with tree-lined [lanes] across the base of the Melville Koppies, providing a peaceful setting for families and friends,” says City Parks.

Melville Koppies
Melville Koppies itself is 60 hectares of nature reserve in the built-up city. A declared national monument, the koppies is home to 200 bird species, small mammals, 50 varieties of grasses, shrubs and spring flowers, trees endemic to the area, as well as different snake species.

It is also the site of a Stone Age camp, with artefacts dating back 50 000 years, as well as an Iron Age furnace which was uncovered in 1963. The iron-smelting debris found next to the furnace was carbon-dated to around 1600. At the top of the hill is one of the oldest rocks on earth, Greenstone, estimated to be over 3 000 million years old.

The open spaces of the koppies are often used by black churches for their Sunday services, their singing and drumming adding to the ambiance.

“At times on weekends [West Park Cemetery] becomes busy with funerals, and the sounds of African drums from traditional churches on the neighbouring koppie,” concludes City Parks.