Visitors to the Humansdorp Graveyard in Du Plessis Street have been left frustrated with the overgrown grass, due to the lack of maintenance and the damage to gravestones caused by cattle while they graze on the grass.
In April last year, the Kouga Express reported that the overgrown grass and trees at the Humansdorp Graveyard left residents fearing for their safety and unable to locate their loved ones’ grave sites.
According to a regular visitor to the graveyard, who would prefer to remain anonymous, the grass at the graveyard was cut last year, as promised, by the Kouga Municipality, but since then it has not been cut again.
Since the grass was last cut one year ago, he said it is now knee high and has continued to grow.
He said he has contacted the local municipality to request a contract to clean the graveyard, since he owns a grass cutting business, but he was unfortunately turned away since he was not registered with the municipality.
“I informed the municipality that I was willing to clean the graveyard regularly, but they said I was not registered with them and could therefore not get the contract to clean the premises,” he said.
Despite staying in Jeffreys Bay he makes monthly trips to the graveyard in Humansdorp to maintain his late mother-in-law and father-in-law’s grave sites.
Apart from the lack of maintenance at the graveyard, he also noticed cattle roaming around on the premises.
“On one day I counted a total of 12 cattle grazing at the graveyard and it was only after I shouted at the herdsman that he moved his cattle,” he said.
Due to the broken-down fence at the bottom of the graveyard, he said the herdsmen were easily able to access the graveyard with their cattle.
“I was upset with the herdsman when I saw the cattle because they damage the gravestones while grazing the grass at the graveyard,” he said.
According to Kouga Community Portfolio Councillor, Daniel Benson, last year local SMMEs were employed to maintain the Humansdorp Graveyard, but due to other commitments the team was unable to attend to the graveyard.
As a result, Benson said they have developed a maintenance programme in which they will use their own team to maintain the graveyard.
“A dedicated team was put in place to regularly attend to the maintenance at the cemetery. The cemetery will be maintained again this month (April),” he said.
Benson said cattle were not allowed in the graveyard and the municipality would monitor the situation.
In addition, he said they plan to place a fence around the cemetery, depending on the budget availability.
For the 2022/23 financial year, Benson said that maintenance plans were put in place and they were currently looking at upgrading the Cemetery Data System, to keep records of all deceaseds’ information.
