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BATTLING: Cornelius Padi of Soweto has been fighting to erect a tombstone on his parent's grave. PHOTO: VELI NHLAPO

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Apparently bureaucratic red tape has stopped the unveiling ceremony for Lucas Padi, who was buried at the Doornkop Cemetery in 1966, and his wife, Julia, who was buried in the same grave in 1980.

Their son, Cornelius Padi, who has spent nearly R10,000 on the stones, said the family was upset because the municipality had told them that the grave needs to be verified first before the tombstones could be erected. He said they were told that an exhumation might be done .

Though the grave is not marked after the metal tags fell off many years ago, Padi said his family had been going there regularly to clean it.

"I was 19 years old when my father was buried here," Padi said. " I was old enough to know the landmark features around the grave, like the tree and the big marking stone near it."

Making it even harder for the family is the fact that their parents' names don't appear on the cemetery's register and receipt books.

According to cemetery clerks some of their older books were either damaged or burnt during riots in the apartheid era and the data was not recaptured properly.

When Sowetan visited the cemetery recently a number of metal tags, which are used to mark graves, were missing and some graves lay in bare heaps.

"Exhumation is not a priority to us. It will be too traumatic for the family and how is it possible to get DNA from an old corpse," said Padi.

Johannesburg City Parks spokeswoman Jenny Moodley said they would meet the family at the grave site today to sort out the confusion.

"The family has an affidavit, which says they have identified the family grave site," Moodley said. "It takes two weeks for us to verify the grave and it won't involve exhumation. In the past we've had families fighting over one grave."-sifilel@sowetan.co.za

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Sun May 26 10:40:48 SAST 2013 ::

Oct 9, 2012

MorenaWaPolelo

Johannesburg City Parks spokeswoman Jenny Moodley said they would meet the family at the grave site today to sort out the confusion.
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Why was this not done before, typical public servant!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Oct 9, 2012

Pointman

The headline is misleading - the grave managers are just doing their job. If the headstone is erected on the wrong grave then the same Sowetan will be running an article on municipal incompetence and the family will be crying about trauma and wasted expenditure.
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Oct 9, 2012

Msiphos00

Meet at the grave site today

Just go and solve this
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Oct 9, 2012

2shy2call

No no no wait before you can erect the tombstone they need to come and take few bones they and their Sangoma.
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Oct 9, 2012

MGEEZ

Pointman
The headline is misleading - the grave managers are just doing their job. If the headstone is erected on the wrong grave then the same Sowetan will be running an article on municipal incompetence and the family will be crying about trauma and wasted expenditure.
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Precisely!!!
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Oct 9, 2012

warry

Haai tlogelang go dlala, re ba tla go ja nama rona. Council sort it out quickly.
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Oct 9, 2012

Publc2

Pointman
The headline is misleading - the grave managers are just doing their job. If the headstone is erected on the wrong grave then the same Sowetan will be running an article on municipal incompetence and the family will be crying about trauma and wasted expenditure.
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Spot on! You have just said it,no futher interpretation needed.Pointman are you a lawyer?

@warry, lol really we are waiting with pepper in our pockets,the process needs to speed up
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Oct 9, 2012

Shredder

Exhumation is not a priority to us. It will be too traumatic for the family and how is it possible to get DNA from an old corpse," said Padi.

It is possible. Ask @tpaz
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Oct 9, 2012

TrapStar

once again, Ap@rtheid takes the blame
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Oct 9, 2012

Kgaitsedi-ya-Genaro

C'mon council give them the go ahead, kana di invite setse di tswile and I can't wait for the after tears ya unveiling.
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