The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is appealing to Sol Plaatje municipality to urgently regulate burials at the Phutanang graveyard in Kimberley. This comes after a number of burials at the cemetery coincided on the weekend, further increasing the risk of funerals turning into super-spreader events.
After attending a funeral of someone close to me on Saturday, I was shocked when we entered the cemetery and found that, while 13 graves had been dug for burials on the day in question, at least five of these burials were taking place consecutively. There was anything between 100 and 300 people attending each of the three burials, causing probably 1000 people to be in close proximity of each other at a single time.
To make matters worse, the graves had been dug extremely close to each other and the allocation of the graves to be used on the day in question, were also all next to each other.
Aside from the added risk of contracting the virus in such cramped conditions, the ceremonies were also disrupted by the situation which saw one group singing loudly, whilst another was proceeding with the blessing. Due to the cramped circumstances, one family could not even see the grave because of all the people, in addition to the mounds of sand around the graves. All of this created further trauma to the already distraught families.
This is serious cause for concern.
The Northern Cape, especially Sol Plaatje municipality, is experiencing an exceptionally high number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Burials cannot be allowed to continue in this dangerous and undignified manner.
I have written a letter to the technical director of Community Services, appealing to Sol Plaatje to urgently regulate burials. Sol Plaatje should be better spacing the graves and allocating them in more sensible manner. It should also limit the number of burials at any given time, making use of time slots and time restrictions for burials, affording all families the opportunity to safely and peacefully bid farewell to their loved ones.