Heritage Cases

This application seeks to obtain a permit to exhume and relocate 35 graves to be impacted by the proposed Lower Umkhomanzi Bulk Water Supply Scheme Phase 1. The project is part of the Ngwadini Advance Work Project in Vulamelo Municipality, Ugu District, KwaZulu‐Natal. Umgeni Water attained environmental and heritage authorizations to proceed with the development of the Lower Umkhomazi Bulk Water Supply Scheme Phase 1: Ngwadini Advance Work which encompasses the construction of an off‐stream earth embankment storage dam in the Ngwadini River Valley, a tributary of the Umkhomazi perennial stream (Fig 1). The study area is located 51 km Southwest of Durban Central Business District (CBD), roughly 15,11 Kilometers Northwest of Craigie Burn CBD, and 3.8 kilometers West of Kwa‐Qiko residential sites within the Ngwadini River valley. Topographically, the proposed Ngwadini dam construction site is characterised by undulating ridges with exposed granite outcrops, valleys, and floodplains currently covered by natural vegetation and varied undergrowth dominated by species of grass cover (add source). Previously, the area was settled by populations that left homesteads whose remains are distributed on both sides of the Ngwadini Riverbank. Oral traditions posit that the valley was widely known as elephant hunting grounds by the late Inkosi Bele (add source). A confirmatory field visit performed in October 2021 with members of families and relatives of the deceased identified remnants of settlements and associated burial grounds. This open vast land is currently used for firewood collection and as grazing land by the local communities.