Grazing cattle desecrate graves

Residents who visited the grave sites of loved ones over the festive season were horrified by what they found at Roy Point Cemetery.

Piles of dung defiled several graves as cows casually grazed between tombstones. Numerous dogs were running around in the cemetery, some actually digging up graves. During a recent levelling of the ground, some gravestones were pushed over while others were in shatters. Sentimental tokens of love such as wreaths, flowers, vases, crosses and endearing messages on plaques were broken and strewn around shambolically.

Even grave markers lay in ruins. Slabs had been erected illegally in areas specifically demarcated for headstones only and some graves were severely sunken.

Seun van der Merwe, who visited the graves of his family members over the festive period was deeply hurt by the condition of community icon, Derrick Federer’s, final resting place.

“Mr Federer received so much respect after he died for all the good he did in the community. Just have a look at the despicable condition of his grave, which is now just a hole in the ground, and decide for yourself whether his legacy lives on,” said Mr van der Merwe.

“I have written several letters about the state of the cemetery and I know from the responses I received that it is one’s own responsibility to keep one’s loved ones graves clean, but this is not an excuse for the municipality to shirk its responsibilities regarding the upkeep and maintenance of the cemeteries.

“It seems that none of the promises for security, fencing and improving the appearance of the cemetery was kept.”

Cemetery superintendent, Sibongiseni Dube, said that fencing for Roy Point Cemetery had been budgeted for and he was just waiting for the tender to be advertised.

He promised to look into the fact that dogs were digging up graves and cows were defecating on the graves as there was a 24-hour security service on site.

Responding to the complaint about slabs being put up in headstone only areas, he said, “Levelling of the headstones is required to be done yearly. People are not allowed to place a full tombstone in the headstone section because headstones are levelled each and every year.

” People tend to buy headstone graves as it is cheaper and later decided to put full tombstone which is unacceptable because the headstone section is only meant for headstones only. On some occasions, headstones are erected on the opposite side of the instructed position, hence the damage occurs.

At current moment, we are trying to find the families related to those graves so that we can level the graves.”

Mr Dube concluded, “We are trying our utmost best to provide the best service to our community in terms of graves, but we need the community to comply with the by-laws in terms of consulting our staff before erecting any remembrance stone. Members of the community are welcome to visit our offices regarding any queries.”