IT is inviting extreme bad fortune to disturb the resting places of the departed.
This is a serious warning from sangoma Mkhize.
“If left like that the dead will be angry and when they are angry, the living will suffer,” he said.
The warning from sangoma Skhunisivuthemanzini Mkhize comes after graves at Olifantsvlei cemetery near Fun Valley, south of Joburg, sank.
When the SunTeam visited the cemetery on Friday, some of the graves had sunk so badly.
Mkhize said the relatives must go to the cemetery and get more soil to bury their loved ones properly.
“The graves might have sank because of the heavy rains, but that doesn’t mean they should be left like that. They need to be taken care of,” he said.
Sangoma Nzama Maluleke agreed with Mkhize.
“When the relatives go to cover the graves, they must plead with the dead to forgive them. Let them know it’s nature that disturbed their peace,” he said.
“There are evil people who go to the graves and steal grave soil to do their evil deeds. If the graves have sunk they can use the soil near the coffin. They can do a lot of evil, and kill a lot of people.”
Daily Sun spoke to two relatives of the dead. Ayanda Sokhela (34) said they buried his uncle in November last year.
“We started having strange dreams about him. On Friday we visited his grave. We were shocked when we found that it has sunk. We will quickly fix it because uncle George is unhappy.”
He said they were told by a sangoma they should fix the grave or else someone in the family would die.
- In the Vaal, several graveyards including Vanderbijlpark and Nanoscol cemeteries were flooded following the heavy overnight rain on Friday.
Mourners and funeral undertakers battled to drain water from the graves to be used for burial.
Emfuleni municipal spokesman Makhosonke Sangweni said: “We spoke with service providers that do our grave digging to provide measures to be able to help undertakers and families.”
