DHS: Work being done to relocate people who built homes on Sea View Cemetery gravesites
Despite efforts to find the families alternative housing, the department says the mushrooming of shacks at the Kennville informal settlement at the cemetery remains a grave concern.
The mushrooming of shacks at the Kennville informal settlement in the Sea View Cemetery in Durban. Picture: Jabulile Mbatha/EWN
DURBAN - The Department of Human Settlements said work is being done to relocate at least 400 people who have built their homes on gravesites at the Sea View Cemetery in Durban.
Despite efforts to find the families alternative housing, the department says the mushrooming of shacks at the Kennville informal settlement at the cemetery remains a grave concern.
Local government admits there is a shortage of land for housing, but said it can’t come at the cost of cemeteries.
Scores of families are living in squalor at the dilapidated Sea View Cemetery, with shacks built beside or on top of the worn-out cement stones.
On an ordinary day, fires are being lit between graves and clothes are hung on a washing line above the head of the tombstones by the residents.
One of the epitaphs reads: “In loving memory of our beloved brother, died 8 February 1941. Rest in peace.”
Department spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya said the profiling of people at the informal settlement is currently underway, with the department yet to determine where they should be permanently relocated to.
“The MEC, Siboniso Duma, has said it’s very incorrect for people to live on top of graves - we need to bring back the spirit of ubuntu, we need to respect the dead because cemeteries are regarded as sacred places, so building on top of graves is something that is being discouraged.”
But he admits budget constraints are delaying the process.