THE eThekwini municipality is transgressing against the basic tenets of African belief. It proposes to exhume bodies and flatten all graves in the city.

We do not know who came up with this stupid idea that goes against all our beliefs.

Some years ago the same municipality proposed that corpses should be buried upright to save space. People laughed this off as a joke.

Africans revere the dead who have gone ahead to join the ancestors. The dead are our connection to the world of God. They intercede for us and guide us in this life.

We are surprised that the fierce Zulu nation has been subdued in the face of this insult to the strongest of our customs, the one that defines who we are.

The municipality claims that it has run out of land for burials. Surely it can come up with new ideas for the disposal of the dead.

Other municipalities dig graves at least eight feet down so that the family can reuse the space.

This is a practical option that takes African beliefs into consideration. It is a practical solution for a family to have its dead in one place.

We are aware that religious beliefs have changed over the years and that we must adapt to changing times. But the idea of supplicating our ancestors while they dance in the ether is distasteful.

It seems that someone at the municipality went to Venice on a fact-finding mission and came up with this idea. Well, we are not Venetians, we are Africans.