A Mitchells Plain woman says something has to be done to stop skelms from desecrating graves after her sister’s headstone at Klip Road cemetery was damaged twice in two weeks.
Zayaan Abdullah says she and her family were deeply disturbed when they visited the grave to find that parts of it had been stolen.
“My sister, Wafiqah Schroeder, passed away on 7 August due to Covid and when we visited her grave on 11 September, we saw that the flowers we put there were stolen and the iron trimming around her headstone was missing,” she says.
“The next week when we came back it was the same thing. I know this is nothing new but something really has to be done about this because how can we allow our loved ones final resting place to be targets of thieves?
“I mean is there really now no place where we can be safe?”
The Woodlands resident said she spoke to the staff at the cemetery who told her that although there are security guards posted at the grounds, they only look after the City-owned buildings and not the graves.
“The metal they took from my sister’s headstone was sieka sold to the scrapyard for R20 or something so the people can do drugs,” says an angry Zayaan.
“We have to pay for all the damages and we cannot even leave flowers because they get stolen by the time we walk away. It is just not right.”
Anthony Lesley, a supervisor at the cemetery, says the staff are in a never-ending battle to keep graves safe.
He says diewe keep breaking the fence on the Parkwood side of the begrafplaas.
“We also find a lot of the guys standing here by the road and selling the flowers so maybe if people stop buying from them, then they will stop breaking in to steal it,” he adds.
Zayaan says she emailed the City, but according to the City’s Zahid Badroodien, no formal complaint has been laid.