Mine, family in grave battle

RELOCATION: COMPANY REFUSES RELATIVES' DEMAND OF R15M, CALLING IT ‘EXPLOITATION'

- Masoka Dube

The fight over the relocation of graves without permission is continuing between a Mpumalanga family and one of South Africa's mining giants.

Mafube Coal Mine and the Middelburg-based Masombuka family recently met to try to settle the three-year-old graves relocation squabble, with the mine conceding that the family was not present during the relocation.

The squabble began in 2023, when Mafube relocated the family's relatives' graves from Nooitgedacht farm in Middelburg to the local burial site, Sikhululiwe Village Cemetery.

Mafube agreed to assist the family to exhume the remains and take them to the preferred cemetery situated in Siyabuswa.

Both sides agreed on everything, but the argument resumed when the mine divulged it would only pay R45 000 wake fees instead of the R15 million demanded by the family.