08/04/2016
Grave Relocation – The Easy Way!!
For many years the ancestral burial sites of the indigenous peoples of southern Africa were ravaged by development, construction and mining. During the last decade or so, these sites have finally been given a voice and are now actively being protected by the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999. Unfortunately the process for their preservation or relocation was not clearly defined leading to much confusion and in many cases anger from communities caused by a perceived lack of sensitivity by developers. This has resulted in the issue of grave relocation becoming a very sore point for developers and specifically mining houses, due to their extensive land use. Areas such as the Highveld where coal is abundant unfortunately also includes areas with very high concentrations of informal burials. Just because these graves are located outside of formal cemeteries does not mean that they are any less significant to the affected families.
In an effort to address these issues, G&A Heritage was part of the very first formal grave relocation in South Africa when we relocated around 2500 graves from the basin of the Nandoni dam during the middle 90’s. Much was learned and many a mistake was made, however we ended up with a workable format that has been refined during the last two decades into a streamlined, effective and sensitive process for the mitigation of endangered burial sites.
During the many years that have passed since then, many companies have materialised who claim that they have the knowledge and expertise to effectively implement the relocation of graves. These also included funeral undertakers who saw the process as a simple version of graveyard exhumations. Due to low costing by these ephemeral companies, many developers were lured into situations that resulted in serious financial harm and loss of public image.
G&A Heritage looked at several such cases and we determined that the main cause of failure in these cases were the disjointed approach of the different components of the process of grave relocation. The main components here are;
- Social consultation
- Archaeological Permissions and Investigations
- Physical Exhumation and Re-internment
- Liaison with the client and various legal departments
Due to the fact that no one offered all these services as a package there was often a lack of communication and accountability from the different components as well as a lack of efficient flow of information between them.
Now for the first time G&A Heritage has brought together the best specialists in each of these modules to create a group of experts who can provide the mining and development community with a turn-key product when it comes to grave relocation. Elimination of duplicate work also means that we can be very competitive. There is also the added advantage of only working with one company rather than several.
We would appreciate any chance to provide you with a project proposal for the relocation of any problematic burial sites you might have to deal with. We will facilitate the social consultation, permitting, exhumation and re-internment as well as the necessary SAHRA reporting etc. You only deal with one person from us and they run the whole project through accredited partners.
We can guarantee the best price for comparable products available.
For a detailed methodology or to request any accreditations or for a costing, please feel free to contact us at;
[email protected]
www.gaheritage.co.za
0155161561
0737526583
We also provide free consultation on grave related issues, enabling you to make the correct decisions.
For further information and for project references, please see our website at www.gaheritage.co.za. Here you will also find a convenient online quote machine, if you need a cost estimate in a hurry.
We look forward to being of assistance in this regard.
