Residents of Welkom in the Free State say they are traumatised after discovering the graves of their loved ones vandalised and demolished. Residents are concerned that soon vandals will steal tombstones as well. They have called on the municipality to secure the graveyards.
Past pain and grief awakened. The final resting place of many loved ones have been desecrated, metal fences have been uprooted and stolen, and some graves are even left wide open.
The families of the deceased are devastated.
Graves are considered sacred and some people visit them to reconnect with their late loved ones.
Families say vandals have lost their morals.
“I’m so disgruntled I don’t know what to say. I’m so angry,” says one of the family members.
“I’m feeling so sad and disappointed in our people that they can damage our ancestral places like this. They show no respect at all for our dead. They just vandalise and take away some stuff. We don’t know what do they do with all of that stuff and you can look around our graveyards, there’s no security at all. So, we don’t know what’s next. Maybe next they’re going to take all the heads of our tombstones.”
Matjhabeng Municipality says it has spent millions securing cemeteries.
Matjhabeng Spokesperson, Kgojane Matutle says it is unfortunate that fences have been stolen in most cemeteries and tombstones vandalised.
“It is quite sad that the cemeteries in question were fenced by the municipality. We previously spent millions of rands to fence those cemeteries and unfortunately, some members of the community who stole it are now blaming the municipality, that we are not doing anything. So, we would like to appeal to our community to report such cases of vandalism and theft against municipality because they actually off at them as well.”
Matjhabeng Municipality has appealed to communities to work together with the police to root out criminality.
