When visiting the grave of a departed loved one, one would expect to mourn in peace and quiet and the last thing on your mind should be to look over your shoulder in fear.
However, this is exactly what residents of Nelson Mandela Bay should be doing, especially if they have family members or friends buried at Forest Hill Cemetery.
This cemetery has been plagued with robberies and at least five incidents of armed robberies over the last two months have been reported.
Police are now, once again, warning mourners and those visiting the graves of their dearly departed to be extra cautious and vigilant of their surroundings.
Police spokesperson, Colonel Priscilla Naidu, confirmed that there has been an increase of robberies at this cemetery.
“The robbers threaten the victims with knives and rob them of their personal belongings. In some cases, they request the vehicle keys and then steal whatever is in the vehicle,” Naidu explained.
She added that the robberies usually occur at any time during the day and the suspects are usually in a group between four to eight people.
“Mourners are advised not to visit alone.
“The area is quiet and the robbers lie in wait for their victims. There is also a thoroughfare through the cemetery which is often used by pedestrians and joggers.
“Visitors are also advised not to wear expensive jewellery and carry valuable items on their visits. If suspicious people are seen approaching you while at a grave site, try to make a hasty retreat or attract attention of other people if they are around,” she said.
“Criminals have no boundaries and in most cases the vulnerable are easy targets. Let us be proactive, alert and take note of these hints in order to enhance your personal safety.”
Nelson Mandela Bay MMC for public health, Lance Grootboom, said that the entire Forest Hill Cemetery was fenced during the 2017/’18 financial year as it was one of the things that he fought for because of vandalism and roaming cattle damaging tombstones.
He explained that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the subsequent lockdown followed, vandalism at the cemetery escalated.
According to Grootboom, they also used to have security guards at the cemeteries but the in-sourcing of security guards created a problem later on.
“We are aware of the robberies that have been taking place recently and what we are in the process of doing is putting systems in place to bring about access control there,” he said.
“The fencing erected in 2018 was also to prevent all of this from happening but obviously COVID-19 has now brought a new game with security guards not under supervision because of the in-sourcing. There are also limited resources, such as funding from the municipality,” Grootboom added.
He mentioned that they are now working on a plan to address these issues. This includes the installation of cameras at the facility.
“We have appointed an anti-vandalism steering committee, that is now assessing all vandalism taking place at municipal properties. We will also very soon be sharpening our safety and security control measures at the cemetery and do further investigation to look at what exactly the problem is.”
Grootboom explained that they would be looking at infrastructure at the Forest Hill Cemetery again, especially since the fence erected in 2018 has been damaged by vandals.
“There are points where the fence has been opened and that is how they are gaining access, but we are investigating and looking at replacing the damaged fence and waiting for a contract to be finalised in terms of cameras.
“We are also looking at additional funding to put some control measures in place with our security guards.”
