Warning – Graphic images: Strange happenings at illegal building site
Residents discovered a forearm of a baboon clutching folded R10 note had been tied to a metal stake and placed in a heap of building sand.
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A strange and somewhat eerie ritual performed at an illegal building site bordered by President Fouché and Mauritz Reed Streets has both puzzled and angered nearby residents.
The site, measuring only a few square metres in a marshland area was recently cleared by a lone worker for what seemed to be informal building operations.
Public notices inviting objections to the proposed developments by the community were not posted on or near the site.
Unconfirmed reports had it that a car wash operation was to be erected on the site.
The ‘owner” of the site told residents the property had been bought from the Msukaligwa Municipality. This was denied by the municipality.
The development caused concern about the disruption of one of the few remaining ecologically sensitive marshland eco-systems in the town.
Over a period of a few days, building material was dumped on the site and on Wednesday afternoon a narrow trench was dug across the tarred road in the direction of a mini electrical substation, presumably to connect electricity to the site.
Municipal officials were then called to the scene and workers were ordered to cease leave because no permission to erect buildings on the property had been given.
At about 22:00 the same night a group of people performing some kind of ritual was seen on the property.
On Thursday morning residents discovered that a forearm of a baboon clutching folded R10 note had been tied to a metal stake and placed in a heap of building sand. Alongside it was a bundle of cloth containing a unknown substance. Candles were also strategically placed at the foot of the stake.
A municipal official who was on the scene on Thursday co uld not explain the meaning of the ritual but put it down to “scare tactics”.
