Burials for paupers occurred in Glastone cemetery from 1 March 1883. Many records were lost to fire; however, surviving reports state that between 24 June 1887 and 28 November 1892, 5000 black burials happened at Glastone cemetery. Approximately 611 black burials occurred between February and June 1900. Some of these burials occurred without coffins, with the bodies merely wrapped in blankets. Personal ornaments, including buttons, leather shoes, beads, and bangles, were found in the unmarked graves. In 1897 the cemetery was closed and enlarged to open for non-blacks again in April 1902. The bodies of miners were viewed as an issue of waste disposal by the mines/city council and the African rituals and mourning processes were of no concern to authorities. Many Basotho miners were not pleased at the manner in which the dead were treated.Tshidi Maloka. Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines. Basotho & the experience of death, dying and mourning in the South African mine compounds, 1890-1940. Volume 38, Cahier 149(1988) pp 17-40
