Heritage Cases

In May 2019, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) attended a meeting at Lafarge Mine in the Bodibe Village after complaints were lodged by the community representatives around disputes between the community with graves that are still located on the mine property. It was confirmed on 14 June 2018 in a joint inspection with the mine, Tau Rapulana Traditional Community and representatives from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMR&E) that there are indeed graves still located on the mine. The case has been ongoing for 13 years, during this time a site report from SRK was conducted in 2006, with a total of twelve burial grounds being recorded as a part of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP); four were located within the quarry and eight outside. Lafarge mine began operation in 1998 after the property was acquired from Blue Circle Cement. A site inspection was also conducted on the burial grounds inside the mine quarry area. A GPR survey of the two burial grounds is needed to identify the location of all the graves. An assessment of old topographical maps indicated that the two burial grounds were first located in agricultural fields close to the Matlabes location in 1972 and on the second map they fall just outside the opencast mining areas in 1996 (First and Second Edition 2526BB 1:50 000 Topographic sheet). As such, it can be confirmed that mining in the area started sometime between 1972 and 1996. Even though no burial grounds are depicted on these topographical maps it does not indicate that they are not located there, they might have been missed during the initial survey. Furthermore, it should also be noted that not all informal burials grounds were recorded and documented as part of property surveys. The existence of the two burial grounds could not be confirmed by old aerial photographs. Aerial Photograph (493_03_07534 dating to 1963) from the CDNGI Geospatial Portal does not indicate any mining activity in the area confirming that the mining started taking place after 1972. Google Earth imagery and historic aerial photographs revealed mining activity in the area but the burial grounds could not be identified due to poor image quality. Google Earth images from 2001 and 2010 also confirm the presence of mining activity in the area and the proximity to the burial grounds. The following methodology will be followed during the GPR survey. The GPR survey aims to detect any anomalies consistent with the burials in the surrounding soil matrix. 1) The features will be documented and together with the surrounding area, will then be cleared of any vegetation that might obstruct the use of the GPR equipment. 2) The stone and soil mounds marking the features will then be levelled by hand. Continuous documentation will ensure that it can be reconstructed after the GPR survey. 3) A survey grid will be laid out over the area to be scanned. The area will be as large as possible, considering the adjacent construction activities which have severely encroached on the features. During the GPR survey, the location of the grave and the homestead will be investigated 4) Radargrams will be collected every 25cm on both the X and Y-axis of the grid. 5) The data will be processed to see if any anomalies are present. Additional to the vertical radargrams, the post-processing software will also produce horizontal slices every 5cm. Once the grave pits have been identified, the feature will be restored to previous conditions before the GPR survey and a formal grave relocation process will commence should the community wish for this process to take place.