Families want answers from municipality after loved ones’ graves destroyed

Some residents in Polokwane, Limpopo, are demanding answers from the Polokwane Municipality after the graves of their loved ones were destroyed during the municipality’s beautification and leveling process.

Locals say the graves’ ornaments and other decorations such as flower pots, lawns as well as stepping stones have been ruined at the Silicon cemetery.

The Polokwane Municipality says it issued a public notice about the leveling of mounds as early as November last year. Some of the aggrieved residents Thomas Risenga and Alet Pieterse have expressed sadness on the destruction of the final resting places for their loved ones.

“The municipality has removed the landscape of my wife’s grave; my heart is painful right now. We spent plus-minus R15 000 to just make this landscape,” says Thomas Risenga.

“I buried my husband here. He died of COVID-19, we never had the opportunity to say goodbye because we were in lockdown five I came and I put the flowers on and I even got the permission of the municipality there were no notices given to us,” says Alet Pieterse.