Maintainance and security a concern at Jacobs cemetery

QUESTIONS about the upkeep and safety of the Dudley Street Cemetery in Wentworth are mounting. The SUN visited the site on Saturday, February 12, to find knee-high grass, damaged graves and no security guards patrolling the site.

According to a man, who wished for his identity to be withheld, there are apparently even vagrants who live at the cemetery. He said they can often be found roaming around the graveyard, offering repair and or grave cleaning services to visitors at a small fee.

“The current state of the graveyard is not as shocking as it was in January, the grass was so overgrown, I could hardly see my mother’s grave. I often visit my mother’s grave because one of the vagrants, who I only know as Bruce, has allegedly been seen smashing the tombstone,” he said.

When asked why his mother’s grave would be targeted, he said it might be that Bruce does it out of spite. “When I first met him, I would give him R20 to assist me with maintaining the grave. On my way to visit a friend one day, this was at about 13:00 or 14:00, it looked like he was drugged up.

He was crawling on the floor, with saliva and mucus running out of his nose and mouth. This was when I decided to stop giving him money. The vandalising then started,” he said.

He said numerous attempts to get in contact with the manager and the supervisor to complain about the state and lack of maintenance of the site has fallen on deaf ears. Nothing has come of it. He alleged that he is sent from pillar to post instead, with no one taking responsibility or securing the premises against vagrants.

“The supervisor said he has had a lot of complaints about Bruce, yet he has not done anything about it. I also relayed the story to the manager, I told him I repair my mother’s grave every second month and this has to stop. It costs me a lot of money in maintenance repairs.

“The manager then said looking after the site was not his job, but instead, shifted the responsibility to the security guard who is supposed to patrol the cemetery. I have not been able to get a satisfactory answer from the security guard and I have not been able to speak to his supervisors about this as yet,” he added.

Bruce, who introduced himself as Cameron Zietsman, said the collapsing of the grave was not his fault. “They placed the tombstone on too soon, the soil had not had enough time to hardened and settle. The soil was still too soft and sank after the tombstone was erected.

“There are other graves like that all around the premises, this is not the only one that looks vandalised. I bought a bag of cement with my own money to assist him to fix the grave. To this day he has no proof of me damaging his mother’s grave,” he said. eThekwini Municipality did not provide a comment by the time of going to print.