I trust this letter will not offend anybody but I really need to have my say.
I feel very sorry for Marie Hann and her family members having to sleep in the cemetery and then the rain, but as the Social Services and the Red Ants pointed out this is a sacred place for a lot of people. The council has been fighting this problem for a long time as it has been in the news before when people were told to move from the cemetery. My issue is the cemetery fence is falling down, the graves are overgrown and the litter is all over the place. Now we have a squatting issue, because that is what it is called. You cannot go to visit your loved ones because it is dangerous. The begging and the harassing are terrible, then you get the muggers. It is all very well to say they are not doing it but how is the person who has gone to put flowers on a grave supposed to know who is safe and who is not?
A couple of years ago I went to the Doornfontein cemetery with my family to find my two grandmothers’ graves. There is a security company there as it is so dangerous.
Also the vandalism that has occurred at the graves is tragic. The brass plaques and screws have been stolen. Stones are broken, and the grass has overgrown a lot of the graves. We have an idea were my grandmothers’ [graves] are but we cannot find them due to the damage to some of the graves. If you go to the Krugersdorp cemetery it is exactly the same, just that there is no security company there.
Is this not why we do not have a caravan park? Due to squatters and the issues it caused? I am sure if Marie went to The Salvation Army for help she would get it. The reason they do not go and get help there is because there are rules to follow. How long did it take the municipality to move the squatters in the caravan park? I can understand they do not want the same thing to happen in the cemetery.
I think the News must look at all the issues before they find fault with the decision made by the municipality. It is as bad as the squatters going on the rampage in Honeydew because the illegal power cables to the informal settlement were disconnected. What gives them the right to get power free when the rest of us who follow the rules have to pay? We are charged a lot more to cover the costs of the people who steal the power.
I think too much sympathy can encourage people to think they can just expect help. Why did they call the paper? To get exposure and sympathy. Do they ever say thank you for the goods and food given? I have not seen it in the paper.
