In an article, Trees break cemetery walls, Ward councillor Ramesh Sheodin and residents expressed their frustration at the state of the cemetery.
Besides the boundary wall that was broken, the cemetery was unkempt and Sheodin feared the graves would be vandalised.
Metro spokesperson Themba Gadebe says they are aware of the state of the cemetery, but denies it is neglected.
“There is a full maintenance contractor on site that maintains the cemetery twice a month.
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“Activities include road sweeping, litter picking, grass cutting and tree pruning, among others. However, as soon as the contractor is done, the community from the nearby informal settlement dump the waste in the cemetery.
“The wall was fixed in 2015, it was again vandalised by breaking holes in sections of the fence in order to gain access to vandalise the cemetery.”
Gadebe says due to limited resources, other public priorities took prominence this year, and therefore there is no budget to fix the cemetery in this financial year.
He said the EMPD has been notified of the problem and will ensure that metro officers patrol the area while the process to allocate security personnel unfolds.
