Pretoria - The Medupi power station graves task team has completed the second phase of the Heritage Impact Assessment for the power station development, says the Department of Environmental Affairs.
This followed a comprehensive public participation process.
“The task team commissioned a second heritage assessment of the Medupi power station development following reports of disturbance and desecration of graves located in the construction zone of the project near Lephalale, Limpopo.
“The second heritage assessment was commissioned by the Department of Environmental Affairs and undertaken by an independent consultant, Mbofho consultants,” said the department on Wednesday.
The investigation identified seven burial sites which have been disturbed or are the subject of a grievance lodged by relatives that need to be resolved, as well as seven graves and burial sites listed in terms of the National Heritage Act which are not subject to a grievance, but that require management in consultation with stakeholders.
Five existing sites, including sacred pools and old settlements worth preserving, were also identified during the process.
The report states that “miscommunications perhaps describe the root of the problems and the resultant resentment and suspicion on the part of some members of the local community. The findings suggest strategies by which the local community can make a meaningful contribution in the protection of heritage resources as Medupi”.
In its findings, the report says that the affected families and community have articulated their views on the treatment of graves and human remains, and their views have been heard and respected throughout the research.
“The ultimate recognition for the need to conduct a deep search into the feelings and concerns of local people is regarded as a restoration of their dignity and an immensely empowering event,” the report read.
In addition, the report states that “all stakeholders in the Medupi case uphold the principle of respect for the dead and protection of graves” and that the “damage or destruction suffered was accidental”.
The report recommended that a distinction be made between graves that are located outside the development area and those in the area where the power plant has been constructed, which have been accidentally disturbed or destroyed, or have been relocated.
The report has put forward recommendations, including the protection and maintenance of graves and sacred pools, as well as the establishment, by Eskom, of a memorial plague in memory of those buried inside the construction area.
It was recommended a cleansing ceremony be held at Medupi in respect of the graves that were disturbed or destroyed and that local communities be permitted to organise rituals and proposed shrine.
On 6 October a meeting took place at the power station which was attended by four of the six families that lodged claims after family graves were found to have been to have been disturbed or destroyed as well as the Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Bulelani Magwanishe.
An apology was extended from Eskom to the families and the community and this was accepted by the families.
The Deputy Minister has since undertaken that the actions recommended in the Heritage Impact Assessment and those put forward by the South African Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) be completed by April 2016. –SAnews.gov.za
