Ghost graveyard
2006-02-23
WHERE once relatives stood at the open graves of their loved ones in Wellington, vandals are now defacing the last remaining tombstones.
The large tract of land at the corner of Front and Powell Streets, where the bones of thousands of Wellington inhabitants rest, is now an overgrown waste land and meeting place for drug users and criminals.
The sad state of the cemetery was once again brought to the attention of the municipality by a woman in Denmark, who could not trace her ancestors’ graves when she visited the site.
“The old graveyard is in danger of disappearing,” she wrote.
“Hardly a stone or indication is left there to point out this huge graveyard.
“I feel that a part of Wellington’s history is lost,” June Nielsen-Ferreira said.
She included an aerial photograph of the area, with the red-roofed St Albans Primary School opposite the barren site.
Also included in her correspondence was an old photograph of her ancestor’s tombstones showing a morgue and a tuberculosis hospital in Upper Front Street.
After much investigation it was established that the Municipality took
over the site in the 1980’s from churches like the United Reformed Church (VGK), Zion and the Full Gospel Church.
An adjoining well-cared for cemetery still belongs to the Moslem community.
According to a municipal spokesman, the grass in unutilised cemeteries is only mowed twice a year.
There is also no funding to fence the area, or do research about location of graves. The administration was done by the churches themselves, and no-one seems to have data.
“Maintenance of tombstones and grave sites is the responsibility of family members. The area has a long history and most of the graves have disappeared.”
Drakenstein mayor Herman Bailey’s grandfather is buried there, and so is his wife’s brother.
His father was, for a few years, caretaker of the cemetery.
In 1995 the then Wellington municipality accepted a proposal to enclose the area, tidy up the scattered tombstones and to “green” the entire area.
Nothing came of the decision, except “Jackie Abrahams’s heritage”, a vibracrete wall erected on the northern boundary of the site.
An entire section of the more than two hectare site was used for victims of the 1918 flu epidemic.
Rev SG de Villiers, a former minister of the Wellington VGK, is buried there, says Rev Edward Lesch.
“Years ago there was a memorial service held there every year, with brass band in attendance. This was stopped when Rev Ventura said he was not going to preach to the dead.
“There are still many church members with plots in the cemetery, but they prefer burials in the Champagne Street cemetery. In the past 23 years I have only had two burials here.”
Nielsen was informed that the site did not fall under the Municipal heritage officer as cemeteries resorted under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Parks.
The officer, Chantelle de Kock, mentioned that should anyone want to take charge of the cemetery it would have to be the community who identified with the particular site.
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