Heritage Cases

The Magagula family made a request to the Department of Water and Sanitation to assist them in regard to the relocation of their family graves. These graves date to the 1940/50s before the area was demarcated for Westoe dam. Unfortunately, when the dam was proposed in the late 1960s, the family were not given enough time to relocate their graves, they were only given a few days from which they had to relocate all their belongings. Since the 1990s, the Magagula family had been requesting the government to assist them to relocate these graves. Their request was finally approved in 2020 by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) who also initiated a preliminary high level of engagement to authenticate whether indeed all the graves belong to the Magagula families. From such engagement, it was proved that indeed all the four (4) graves located on Portion 02 of the Farm Newstead 253-IT belonged to the Magagula family. Vhubvo Archaeo-Heritage Consultants was then appointed in April, 2022 to further verify this assumption and also facilitate the relocation and internment of all the four graves. Vhubvo commissioned a wide consultation and also advertised. The advertisement was done in Zulu and English, and it was enlarged into A3 size posters that were placed at public-strategic points in the area of Fernie, Amsterdam and Ermelo, as well as in Westoe Dam (See Attached). Advertisement was also petitioned in the Highvelder Newspaper (see attached). All these adverts were done on the 10th of June 2022. From the conducted consultation it was further authenticated that indeed these graves belonged to the Magagula family. The graves are currently submerged under water (see attached) due to the recent high rainfall in the area. However, they are occasionally visible when the water level is low, like in the year 2020 (see pictures taken then attached). Nevertheless as soon as the permit is issued, the dam will be deflated to shed some water so as to allow for the graves to be relocated. It is on that note that we request SAHRA: Burial Grounds and Graves to issue a permit so the process of relocation of these graves can be initiated before the rain season commences.