A group of Joburg Parks and Zoo employees rolled up their sleeves and cleaned the Alexandra Cemetery as part of a city-wide A Re Sebetseng clean-up campaign on Saturday.
Fully kitted with gloves, refuse bags and rakes, the employees were joined by the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Community Development, Cllr Nonhlanhla Sifumba, MMC for Corporate and Shared Service, Cllr Ntombi Khumalo and EPWP workers.
It was the fourth A Re Sebetseng in 2018, which was launched by Executive Mayor Cllr Herman Mashaba alongside leaders in business, civil society, religious institutions and community organisations last year.
Plastic bags are given to the volunteers to clean their surroundings and bags with refuse then be collected on the same day by Pikitup.
MMC Sifumba said the Alexandra Cemetery – with its overgrown shrubbery that has hidden some of the graves – had become a hideout for criminals and other wrongdoers.
“As graves are sacred, I am appealing to families to maintain the graves of loved ones where possible, remove weeds and ensure that all graves are well kept,” stated Sifumba.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, which is responsible for open spaces including cemeteries, has deployed additional resources from its parks maintenance units and appointed external contractors to address service delivery shortfalls to 13 of its 32 cemeteries. Work in earnest commenced over the past weekend at Westpark Cemetery. The internal maintenance teams have cut large sections of the 100 hectare cemetery.
Similar maintenance operations are being carried out in Avalon, Olifantsvlei, Waterval in Midrand, Diepsloot, Nancefield, New Roodepoort, Newclare, Braamfontein, Brixton, Lenasia, Doornkop and the Panorama cemeteries. The regional teams are working with appointed contractors to ensure that all seasonal backlogs stemming from the heavy rains are resolved by end of May 2018.
“The cleaning of the graveyard means a lot to the community here, because our loved ones are buried here. There are graves from as early as the 1900s. This place has huge significance for the community,” said MMC Khumalo.
“There was this big bush that thieves would come out of and rob us. Now we can see people walking around there, thanks to the people who are participating and cleaning here today. We have a responsibility as residents to stop using the graveyard as an illegal dumping site,” said Anna Ndlovu a resident.
