On the eve of Halloween, evil vandals believed to be satanists have desecrated the Muslim cemetery in Observatory.
The Muslim Judicial Council and police are now investigating after ground staff at the Mowbray Cemetery arrived on Wednesday morning to find about 80 desecrated graves.
Gravestones were ripped out and positioned into what appears to be an upside down cross, while various other cult-like symbols, believed to be linked to satanism, were found on top of the damaged graves.
Members of the MJC were called to the cemetery by shocked gravediggers and spokesman Sheikh Riad Fataar says everyone has been left horrified.
“We’re thinking it is some satanic thing, we don’t really know, but it’s a sick thing to do. This is a bunch of crazy deranged people that are
trying to create unnecessary friction in the community,” Fataar says.
SICKENING: vandals believed to be satanists have desecrated the Muslim cemetery in Observatory. Picture: Jack Lestrade
“Those people who are going through the pain of losing loved ones, we now have to call them back again to identify where the grave is to put back the headstone.
“Those graves, they also made funny signs in there. I couldn’t figure it out what it was, but it is strange.”
Cemetery supervisor Ismail Abrahams said staff arrived at 8am wanting to continue their excavations to prepare holes for the deceased when they made the sickening discovery.
Traumatised family members filled up Browning Road in Observatory and headed into the cemetery to check on the final resting places of their loved ones and many could be seen crying as they viewed the destruction.
Gravestones were dug out and the graves damaged, with flowers and vases broken.
A widower, who buried his wife just two weeks ago, says he is grateful that his wife’s grave was not desecrated.
SICKENING: Families at Mowbray cemetery trying to identify their loved ones’ graves.
Another emotional widower Tougheed Rajab, 38, from Mitchells Plain, says the eerie symbols formed with the gravestones ended next to his wife’s grave
“We are shocked and it is very upsetting. With all the gravestones removed, who knows where their loved ones are?
“We watched people crying this morning as they tried to find their people.”
His wife Fatiema died two weeks ago after giving birth to premature twin girls.
Tasneem Essop and her brother Shuaib Jacobs rushed to check on the graves of their parents, Omar and Latiefa Essop, after learning about the act on social media.
SICKENING: Families at Mowbray cemetery trying to identify their loved ones’ graves
The small white marble stones inside the marble border were gone “as if someone was trying to dig out something,” she says.
SAPS’ Andrè Traut confirms: “Woodstock police are investigating a malicious damage to property case relating the damages caused to graves at the Mowbray cemetery.”