Pretoria – Opposition parties in the City of Tshwane took a swipe at mayor Solly Msimanga for removing from the council agenda a report dealing with a new graveyard in Soshanguve.
ANC caucus leader Mapiti Matsena said all cemeteries in the township were full and some people were forced to conduct illegal burials.
The report would have partly dealt with whether Klipkruisfontein Cemetery in Soshanguve should be downgraded from Category B to C.
In terms of the city by-laws, residents who bury their loved ones in graveyards classified as Category A were expected to fork out at least R2 000. Those using Category C cemeteries were expected to pay R900.
The withdrawal of the report meant that people would continue to travel at least 20km to Zandfontein to bury relatives.
The matter came to light during the council sitting at Sammy Marks council chamber after Msimanga asked for the report to be removed from the agenda.
The EFF joined the fray by calling for the city to allocate graves for free to poor communities. The party also protested against the decision to remove the matter from the agenda, saying it was not pro-poor people.
On the other hand, the ANC demanded that the cost graves be reduced in favour of needy communities.
The move by Msimanga was chastised by opposition parties, labelling it uncaring about the plight of the people.
Matsena said the process for upgrading Klipkruisfontein was started last year by the ANC-led government.
He said communities had already been informed that the cemetery would be officially opened next month.
“The problem is that the DA-led government is not a caring government; it is not taking the people of Tshwane seriously."
“We thought this report was going to assist because there are no cemeteries in Soshanguve so far,” he said.
Matsena said the mayor was delaying the tabling of the report, because the problem did not affect the DA wards.
“That is why today the executive mayor, instead of us approving the report, wants to withdraw it. He had been instructed by Cape Town that the report should not go,” Matsena said.
He said the tabling of the report was to serve the purpose of declaring the cemetery officially opened.
“The ANC wanted the report to be dealt with to allow people to start burying their loved ones starting from next week,” Matsena said.
The cemetery was ready and its infrastructure was in good condition.
Msimanga said he withdrew the report, because he was not satisfied with the downgrading of the cemetery status to category B, which he deemed not affordable to the poor.
The report recommended that the Category A should be downgraded to B, but according to Msimanga, it was still expensive .
“How do we allow the situation where a 3-year-old child’s family is required to pay R1 300 before the child can be buried,” he said.
Matsena said the cemetery in Soshanguve must be classified as Category C, which would assist in addressing issues of affordability for people in Soshanguve.
EFF councillor Moafrika Mabogwane asked: “Why is there a need to classify cemeteries. We call on the city to provide free graveyards to our people."
“The ANC cannot grandstand as if they were providing free graveyards to our people.”