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Articles: Grave concern about cemetery violations

Posted by admin on Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - 02:09 AM

The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), Willem Konjore, has expressed grave concern about the "wanton destruction" of graveyards and tombstones countrywide.
Konjore, who is also a clergyman, told churchgoers at Karasburg and Vaalgras over the weekend that the senseless destruction of fencing at graveyards and tombstones on graves had reached a level where it could no longer be tolerated. While noting that the phenomenon was national, the Deputy Speaker singled out places such as Karasburg, Keetmanshoop and Windhoek as among the most affected towns. He said that thousands of taxpayers' dollars had been pumped into the upkeep of graveyards, while relatives of the deceased spent large sums of money on the tombstones of their dearly departed. Konjore called on errant community members to put a halt to these horrendous practices. "What has happened to the respect we had for our dearly departed? Why should we spend money to go to funerals, only to destroy the graves of the dead?" he asked. Konjore specifically cited the example of the old cemetery in the Tseiblaagte residential area of Keetmanshoop, where fencing was only recently put up - at a cost of thousands of dollars - was already almost completely destroyed. Further, most of the graves were unrecognisable, as residents of the township used the cemetery as a thoroughfare.

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