THE chairman of the Mvoti Neighbourhood Watch has raised his concern over a hole in the wall of the Red Hill Cemetery. Grant Cockburn said criminals are using the hole as an access point to the cemetery after committing crimes in the area. “We see a lot of vandalism, cable theft and damage to tombstones,” he noted.
Cockburn added, “I’m concerned that the suspects could also end up using this entry point to make their way across the cemetery and gain access to Melrose Place and Melrose Avenue. Touch-wood, we haven’t seen an increase in activity in these areas. Then again our patrols wouldn’t necessarily pick this up because the suspects would go through backyards to avoid them.”
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The gap, which was discovered on Friday, 21 April, has already been reported to the cemetery’s security as well as the City, Cockburn said. The chairman went on to say that crime has been down in the area since a spike over the Christmas period.
Red Hill Cemetery has been a security concern for Parkhill residents. Despite the installation of eight cameras in 2015 that cost the City R700 000, locals complained in the past of consistently hearing gunshots coming from the cemetery.
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eThekwini Head of Communications, Tozi Mthethwa said, “It is true that people use the cemetery for easy access from and to public transport routes. The control measures that were introduced to address this were to have one gateway to access the cemetery.”
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