BY ANNISA ESSACK

26:04:2021

Muslim residents in Caledon, a small farming town in the Western Cape, are unhappy due to there being no space for burials in their hometown. It is difficult enough to bid a final farewell to loved ones, but residents say it is more painful to bury them in neighbouring towns, far from their homes.

The allocated section for Muslim faith burials in the Overberg community has reached capacity, and residents demand answers from the Theewaterskloof municipality.

Seventy-six-year-old Mohamed Zain Cupido moved to Caledon almost 30 years ago and has been fighting for a proper allocation of burial space in the town to serve the Muslim community. After years of negotiation and after enlisting the help of the Human Rights Commission in 2004 to facilitate meetings, a piece of land was made available with space for 112 graves.

However, by 2004, the Muslim community soon realised that the problem would persist. People of other faiths had utilised the allocated space, and when Cupido raised the issue with the council, he informed that the community should have fenced off the area.

Since Muslim Janazah or funerals follow specific rites, the lack of burial space in the town means Muslim families have to travel at least 32 km to bury their dead, makes the situation very difficult. The distance of cemeteries with space for Muslim burials also means that more impoverished families can’t tend to and visit far-flung grave sites as often as they would like.

While Cupido has been championing the fight, other residents share the same concerns. The psychological impact is also a heavy burden to bear for many.

Grief Albertus, who has been living in Caledon for more than 40 years, lost his 23-year-old son Jamiel in a motorbike accident back in 2014, and they had to bury him in Wellington in the Boland — more than 118 kilometres away.
“We phoned Wellington’s imam. We thought we couldn’t bury him here because there’s no ground here, so we must go back to where I came from in Wellington.
Albertus said that at the time, they didn’t know what to do. They were in shock at having lost their child, and now visiting and tidying the gravesite was tough.
“It’s still difficult for us because it is far away from here, and we must go there and clean the grave there, and we stay in Caledon. It shouldn’t be like this.”

The town’s Muslim leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Iwen, says that the municipality has twice given a portion of land to the community. It was up to the community to secure the premises; however, they did not follow through.
“I used to ask for donations in the masjid, that please, the business people here if you can donate anything so that we can secure that place.
“We didn’t have Muslim janazahs in Caledon for quite some time. Then the other side, when it was full, they occupied our space. They just started to bury people on the side we were given.”

Iwen added that people who had buried relatives elsewhere had often chosen to do so in many cases.
“We do have the Muslim cemetery in Hermanus, which is 32 km from here, and that one, it covers the Muslims of the Overberg. So, whenever anything happens here, we go to Hermanus. There are those, because their families or wherever they are coming from, they go to bury their loved ones there.”

Regarding the lack of burial space in Caledon itself, Cupido met with the Theewaterskloof mayor and other officials in February this year, raising his concerns.
“The mayor phoned me and said I must come to their office. I went there, and they said, ‘no, it can’t be, we will make a plan’.”

Cupido is worried that there has been no progress since those discussions.
“I haven’t heard from them since that time. I don’t know what’s happening. If we die, where are we going to be buried?”

The Theewaterskloof Municipality said that it had done what it could — it provided the designated spot for Muslim burials in the original cemetery. But over the years, there were no Muslim faith burial requests, and others utilised the allocated space.

The Theewaterskloof Municipality says that there was a long-term plan to extend the existing cemetery by 15 hectares. Still, it would require infrastructures such as roads, water and sewerage, and therefore the timeline for delivery would depend on when budget could be made available.