Following an extremely successful Community Clean-up operation at Mowbray Cemetery and Johnson Road Cemetery a few months ago, the community can again look forward to a community participation weekend where the public is invited to come out and be part of a joint clean-up operation. The Initiative will happen on two weekends with Johnson Road inviting the public to participate on Saturday and Sunday the 28 and 29 October 2023. Mowbray Cemetery will have the community clean-up weekend on the 11 and 12 of November 2023.
The initiative supported by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) is set to be focused on two weekends where the public is requested to partake in cleaning up, repairing, neatening, and upgrading graves. The community will be urged to bring along their spades, bags, buckets, and gloves and get involved in the initiative.
Present at the Cemetery on the weekend will be a range of service providers and Cemetery operational partners with a meal being provided to participants at no cost.
According to the Chairman of the Vygieskraal Cemetery Board, Abdullah Salie, the main reason for having the Cemetery Weekend is the need to have the community come out to the cemetery and physically mark the graves. “The biggest problem is that at Johnson Road we are only doing re-openings, which means that we only re-open old family graves, and many times people come to locate graves but there are no actual markings”. Another reason for the initiative, according to Salie, is the need to have the community participate and get involved with clean-ups and maintenance. “If there are people with weed-eaters for example, then contact us and assist where you can”, concluded Salie.
Television Talk Show Host, Chairman of the Moslem Cemetery Board, and Secretary of the Burial Administration of the Muslim Judicial Council Faizal Sayed said that ” there has been a dynamic shift in our society in the last years where the cemeteries and development of facilities at cemeteries, the augmentation of processes and systems and the precipitation of general developments has become prevalent. We are in a revivalist era, and it is heart-warming to see the community of the Cape respond so well to the care of the cemeteries. Hence it is imperative for everyone to set the dates in their calendars and to ensure that they come out on the 28 and 29 October to Johnson Road Cemetery and 11 and 12 November to Mowbray Cemetery in honour of their loved ones buried there and in support of the preservation of our heritage and maintenance of our cemeteries”.
Sheikh Riad Fataar, second Deputy President of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and Chairman of the MJC’s Burial Administration said that the MJC welcomed the call of Mowbray and Johnson Road Cemetery in calling the community to participate in the clean-up operation. “The cemeteries are close to our hearts; our loved ones are buried there hence from the MJC side we encourage everyone to go out and be part of the initiative. We are encouraging our community to come out in numbers and clean up the spaces in the cemetery where our loved ones are buried. If there is someone buried next to that of your family grave and it is not being cleaned then take the initiative of cleaning those graves too”, said Fataar.
The community can expect a hive of activities in the cemetery which include Thikrs, Recitals, and the presence of related service providers.
To contact Johnson Road Cemetery, call +27 78 904 4039 (Vygieskraal) or email vygieskraalcb@gmail.com. To Contact Mowbray Cemetery, call +27 63 399 0656, email info@mowbraycemetery.org or visit www.mowbraycemetery.org
(Issued by The Moslem Cemetery Board and Vygieskraal Cemetery Board)