Minister Senzo Mchunu leads a traditional cleansing ceremony and unveiling of monument for families and graves relocated from Inanda Dam.
Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu will on Monday, 20 May 2024, lead a traditional cleansing ceremony and unveil a monument of remembrance for families and graves that were relocated from the uMngeni riverbanks for the construction of the Inanda Dam in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal.
The cleansing ceremony which will take place at Inanda Dam, kwaMsinsi, seeks to appease the families of Qadi, eMaphephetheni, KwaNgcolosi and KwaQiniselani-Manyuswa Traditional Authorities whose families were relocated, and graves exhumed and reinterred in various gravesites in the province, with some of the graves unaccounted for, as a result of the construction of the dam in 1989.
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and its KZN water entity, uMngeni-uThukela Water Board together with its subsidiary, Msinsi Holdings, which is responsible for the Inanda Dam water resource infrastructure, will host the traditional cleansing ceremony and erect a monument to provide closure to the families affected, in accordance with the legislations and policies that guides on the management of issues relating to land development by government, including relocations and compensations for those affected by the process.
Minister Mchunu will be accompanied by the provincial and local government leadership and the representatives of the four traditional authorities as well as uMngeni-uThukela Water Board members and those of Msinsi Holdings.
Before the Inanda Dam was constructed, families from the four traditional authorities lived along the riverbanks uMngeni flowing from the Nottingham Road, where they also buried their deceased traditionally in the kraals as had been done from generation to generation.
In 1987, the families and around 800 graves were exhumed and relocated to various areas, with majority of the remains reinterred at Ntuzuma gravesite, for the purpose of the construction of the dam, while some of the graves were could not be located.
Over the years, representatives of the four traditional authorities and the families have been engaging with the DWS over concerns that during the impounding of the dam, traditional rites were never observed or performed to inform and appease the departed that they were being relocated from their ancestral home to be reinterred somewhere else.
Members of the media are invited as follows:
Date: Monday, 20 May 2024
Venue: Inanda Dam (KwaMsinsi)
Time: 10h30
For media confirmations, contact
Sinethemba Madolo
Cell ;063 501 0223
E-mail: MadoloS@dws.gov.za
Mbali Mahaye
Cell: 082 601 5674
E-mail: mahayem@dws.gov.za
For more information contact
Wisane Mavasa
Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation
Cell: 060 561 8935
Kamogelo Mogotsi
Spokesperson for the Ministry
Cell: 076 523 0085
Siyabonga Maphumulo
Spokesperson for uMngeni-uThukela Water
