Cemetery crew turns grief into survival in Soweto

By Palesa Matlala

• A group of unemployed men in Soweto earn money by cleaning and maintaining graves at Avalon Cemetery, relying on payments from families they help.
• Despite years of experience, informal grave assistants say they cannot get formal jobs and now face growing threats from crime and drug users.

Among rows of headstones at Avalon Cemetery, Surprise Theko spends his days cleaning graves and trimming grass. The work is simple but steady. It gives him a way to survive.

He is part of a group known as the Avalon crew. They are informal grave assistants working in one of Soweto’s biggest cemeteries. Jobs are hard to find, so they depend on small payments from families who visit their loved ones.

Theko says he struggled for years to find work. He joined the group in 2024 after deciding he could not sit at home any longer. Now he spends his days caring for graves that might otherwise be forgotten.

The crew clean, clear rubbish and keep burial sites neat. They say the work also helps them stay out of trouble.

Sibusiso Songwana, who is 28, joined after friends urged him to do something productive. He says he needed a way to survive and avoid making bad choices. After a few months, he says the work has given him both income and peace.

Avalon Cemetery covers 172 hectares and is one of the largest in the country. It opened in 1972 during apartheid for black residents. Many well known figures and ordinary people are buried there.

Another worker, Thabo Makgele, says the cemetery helps him escape the daily struggles of township life. He spends most of his time there to avoid trouble and earn what he can.

Some families say they feel safer when the assistants are around. But there are concerns that visitors cannot always tell who is genuine and who may be a criminal.

The workers say they still struggle to get formal jobs. Ronald Maluleka says he has years of experience but has never been hired by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo.

The city body says it cannot employ people without following proper hiring rules. It is responsible for general upkeep, while families must maintain individual graves.

Theko now looks after several graves for different families. Many no longer pay him cash. Instead, they send money through eWallet after he sends photos of his work as proof.

The assistants say crime is becoming a problem. They face threats from drug users who enter the cemetery and try to take work from them. They also say they have no power to control who comes in.

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo says it has received some complaints and has security at main entrances. But the cemetery is large and difficult to control fully.

Visitors are urged to stay alert and move in groups.

For the Avalon crew, the cemetery is more than a workplace. It is where they earn a living and help families care for those they have lost.

Pictured above: Grave head stone

Image source: File