South Africans divided over BLF allocating graves to politicians

There have been mixed reactions to the Black First Land First movement (BLF) demonstration against the digging of mass graves at the Honingnestkrans cemetery, north of Tshwane.

On Saturday, 50 BLF members gained entry to the cemetery and planted crosses on graves and engraved them with names of politicians, including EFF leader Julius Malema, basic education minister Angie Motshekga and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

BLF deputy president Zanele Lwana told TimesLIVE that the government should save lives rather than prepare for Covid-19 deaths.

“Instead of saving lives and livelihoods, they dig graves. They are ready to kill us with the pandemic. All we are saying is that it is wrong to dig graves for us while we are still alive.”

Lwana said the graves were allocated to politicians because they enabled the ruling party to bury South Africans "while they're still alive".

“MPs have allowed the ruling party to go ahead with this plan. Silence is a sign of consent,” said Lwana.

She said the graves were not “closed” but were merely allocated. She said the party gave the Tshwane municipality five days to close the graves or they would return to close them.

The stunt has been criticised by the Tshwane metro. Head administrator Mpho Nawa denied that the cemetery had been earmarked as a Covid-19 burial site and said graves are routinely dug in expectation of burials.

BLF received criticism and praise over the stunt. These are some of the views shared on Twitter: