- The family of Neil Jacobus, chair of the Carola Neighbourhood Watch, found his late wife’s grave vandalised at Klip Road Cemetery, with damaged plaques and stolen items.
- Cemetery vandalism and robberies have become a frequent issue, prompting warnings to the community to avoid visiting the cemetery alone and to report incidents to the police.
- Despite occasional patrols, the Grassy Park CPF urges for increased security measures to protect the sacred site.
A brown cross marks the grave where Neil Jacobus, chair of Carola Neighbourhood Watch in Grassy Park, laid his wife to rest at Klip Road Cemetery 10 months ago. However, a visit last week left the family angry and disappointed when they came across the vandalised site.
A crack on a plaque, a broken vase, missing flowers and stolen brass is what greeted the family during their visit on Monday 5 August.
“I usually come to my wife’s grave once a month,” says Jacobus. “I made brackets for the cross and tried to make it with the cheapest materials that can’t be vandalised or tempting to thieves but that did not stop them.”
His advice to families is not to leave fresh flowers with long stems behind as vandals will steal them from the cemetery to resell.
“My advice to people is to cut the flowers short and sprinkle sand over so that perpetrators will not be able to sell the flowers,” said Jacobus.
Common occurence
According to Jacobus, vandalism and robberies at the cemetery have become a common occurrence.
“Perpetrators take small pieces of metal from the grave site crosses, it is not even worth anything but they will break it off and sell it for scrap,” he said. “In this cemetery, there are also a lot of people being robbed and their personal belongings get stolen. I belong to the neighbourhood watch and so people have told me how scared they are to come to the cemetery.”
He urges the community not to visit the cemetery alone and to keep valuables out of sight.
“Do not leave any valuable items such as a sentimental vase behind because it will be broken or stolen.”
Jacobus further encouraged residents to report incidents of robbery and vandalism at the police station.
“Unfortunately, many people don’t go to the police station to report cases of robberies at the cemetery so you won’t see any patrols.”
Grassy Park Community Policing Forum (CPF) spokesperson Philip Bam confirmed that vandalism and robberies have been an issue at the cemetery for years.
“We have complaints from time to time. It is nothing new, however, it’s been happening for at least four years where people are attacked in the cemetery,” he said. “People steal flowers, they assault people who go to visit a grave, which is something completely outside of our culture.”
24/7 presence
He added while there are occasional Law Enforcement patrols in the cemetery it has not fixed the problem.
“The people who want to steal, they steal plaques from the Muslim graves and there isn’t much one can do unless there is a 24/7 presence in the cemetery,” said Bam.
“I’ve seen people come around trying to sell flowers that was stolen from the grave and I think we need to implore our community, schools and churches to reinforce the fact that a grave is a sacred place.”
He called on Law Enforcement to enhance their presence in and around the cemetery.
“It is sad that people don’t have respect anymore because in the old days it was unthinkable that someone would desecrate a grave and show that kind of disrespect,” he said. “We want to call on our community to respect the dead and not desecrate the graves… it is simply not on.”
Bam reminded the community to never enter the cemetery alone.
“I think it is never safe in an open space where you don’t know people’s motives – because you will be robbed.”
