City’s cemeteries a playground for crime
On the brink of Heritage Day, remembering those who have passed on, and honouring their gravesites is not safe to do in the city.
POLOKWANE – In recent months, security had to be beefed up at graveyards in the city after people reported incidents of robbery in the cemeteries.
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Johan and Janine Bouwer from Tzaneen recently visited their parents’ graves in the local cemetery, and ended up being robbed of the cash they had, the ID’s and two cellphones.
They opened a case of robbery at the Polokwane Police Station.
“We wanted to show our youngest daughter where her grandparents had been buried, thinking that when she is older she will be able to visit here on her own. We view this as part of our heritage, honouring the people who shaped us into the people we are today. We however believe it is not safe to do so anymore,” Janine told Review.
A resident who asked to remain anonymous told Review that she was robbed of her handbag at the Dahl Street cemetery. The handbag was later found discarded, but returned to her by a security company.
“Our ancestors, fathers and mothers are in the graveyard and we cannot visit them. This is heritage that is lost and there is nothing that we can do about it. We are now forced by crime to forget about bringing flowers to those who gave us so much.”
Limpopo Police Spokesperson Col Moatshe Ngoepe told Review police patrol the areas around the graveyards.
The Polokwane Municipality, responsible for the maintenance, has had the area fenced and walled, but criminals still find a way in.
Cultural burial places like those of the Muslim community in the city have had gravesites vandalised and tombs broken, presumably for the metal inside that keeps the structure upright, as this could be sold at scrapyards.
A while ago, the special place for prayer and cleansing at the graveyard in Dahl Street was broken into and vandalised.
“The desecration of graves is the desecration of our culture, something that is passed on from one generation to the next. It is like an attack on who we are and what we believe in. What message does that send to the next generation,” Muhammad Baqri, a resident who had to replace tombstones, told Review.
According to funeral companies, residents opt to have their loved ones cremated instead as a result.
“We have had many people talk to us about cremation for the safety of the remains. People have said straight out that they do not feel safe visiting gravesites and would much rather have a person cremated. It is just easier to visit a wall at a church or have the remains in a place that is special to the deceased,” John Mulaudzi from a local funeral company employee told Review.
