Land claim turns cemetery into squatter camp

Land claim turns cemetery into squatter camp
Pretoria East Cemetery

Pretoria East Cemetery – Is this what you would want for your deceased loved ones? Well, it seems as if we have no option, but to put up a big paper fight, this once beautiful cemetery with lavish green grass and beautiful trees was in a flash of an eye turned into what seems to be the beginning of a construction site.

Tshepo 1000 National Youth was hired by the Tshwane metro in Gauteng to turn this place of loving memories into a squatter camp! Information received is that there was a land claim on the ground of which the cemetery is part of and the claim was won and the ground handed over.

Nobody was informed of the process, nobody was notified of the intention to destroy the graves, and no notification was placed at the cemetery informing the visitors of the intended changes and subsequent damages of the graves in the cemetery. How does one visit your deceased loved ones and keep the memory alive of the love for that deceased person, being your mother, father, brother husband, wife or child?

Subsequent telephonic enquiries at the Tshwane municipality is worthless as you are sent from pillar to post and NOBODY is prepared to answer questions. Laying criminal charges is just the tip of the ice berg, the persons responsible must be brought before a court of law.

Where are their loved ones put to rest, maybe if those graves are violated they will then wake up and understand our pain?

Thousands of people have been affected by this very ludicrous and stupid move. Instead of using that money to make more water resources available and or fixing the roads or job creation, but you can bet your salary on it that some official has received a good kick back to allow this to go ahead.

My mom died 3 years ago of cancer, and was buried in this same cemetery, to go through the mourning process is difficult, especially if you stay far and can’t visit the grave regularly.

My sister, Jeanne, stay near the cemetery and visits my mom’s grave 3 times a week. When it’s my mom’s birthday, or the day she passed or Mother’s day or Christmas she will go and make that a special day, because my mom was very special. Now you get a call from your sister very distressed and then the pictures telling you about the horrible things going on in the cemetery.

Recent photo at Pretoria East cemetery
Recent photo at Pretoria East cemetery

 

Photo taken a while back at Pretoria East cemetery
Photo taken a while back at Pretoria East cemetery

You feel the pain, you feel lost.

Why can anybody give permission to do something like this, where some families, husband, child, mother, father or daughter is lying.

Tell me, is this human for the municipality just to change things the way they want it?

No it’s not.

Precious people are lying in the Pretoria East cemetery Pretoria (Gauteng). If you have a heart, everybody knows how it feels to stand at a grave of a loved one, now you must do the process all over just because some mayor don’t know how to utilize the South African tax payers money correctly.

By Michelle Mans

South Africa Today – Community Contribution