WITH help from the Kouga Local Municipality, the Jeffreys Bay Dorp van Drome organisation, which aims at cleaning and beautifying the town, has yet again embarked on a great project to clean-up BB Keet Street Cemetery in Jeffreys Bay, a neglected cemetery which desperately needed cleaning.
James Vosloo, who together with his wife, Loulita, joined Dorp van Drome in November last year, said volunteers from the organisation identified the cemetery as a project they wanted to work on.
They then proceeded to consult with Kouga Waste and environmental management manager, Christa Venter, to share their ideas and confirm their involvement.
“Loulita and I wanted to involve ourselves in a community project and make ourselves available to make a difference in the town of Jeffreys Bay, a town we grew up in, love and know so well,” said Vosloo.
He said the BB Keet Street Cemetery was in a neglected state when they first embarked on their clean-up project on December 16, 2021.
“We noticed that the cemetery had overgrown trees; the graves were full of weeds and the grass was long, which continued to get worse over the years. We therefore identified the cemetery as a project we wanted to focus on,” said Vosloo.
Since both Vosloo and his wife were born and raised in Jeffreys Bay, their parents, family members and friends were buried at the cemetery.
“The people buried at the cemetery were all inhabitants who contributed in some or other way to the development of the town, from being a fisherman’s village to the town it has become,” said Vosloo.
As part of the clean-up project, the team removed the rubble and pruned and cleared the overgrowth of weeds from the graves and removed the self-germinated trees on some of the older graves, which had caused considerable damage.
Vosloo said the municipality assisted greatly with the project by mowing the lawns and supplying the transportation to remove the piles of rubble.
He said they were currently still working on completing their project, with a team from the organisation cleaning up every Tuesday.
However, Vosloo said he hoped to get involved in projects to clean up other cemeteries in Jeffreys Bay, once they were done at BB Keet Street Cemetery.
He said that now that most of the rubble had been removed, they were looking at the possibility of creating a new garden with new plants of trees and shrubs.
“We are planning on beautifying the area in and around the cemetery and placing benches at various locations,” said Vosloo.
“We urge other community members to join in various projects within the bigger Kouga area.
“Only by taking ownership and joining hands will we be able to progress and make a difference.”
Venter said cemeteries were a focal point for the Kouga Municipality this year and they plan to have a gardening team at the BB Keet Street Cemetery once a week to maintain the area.
In addition, she said the municipality planned to upgrade the ablution facility at the cemetery and they planned to plant more suitable trees, as well as update all registers.
She said that vandalism at cemeteries was, unfortunately, one of the problems the municipality was faced with.
“People don’t respect the importance of cemeteries for loved ones coming to visit and it is an ongoing problem, not only at cemeteries, but all council properties,” said Venter.
“The municipality plans to clean cemeteries throughout the Kouga region, namely, Humansdorp, Patensie, Hankey and the closed sites in Pellsrus.”
