MADALA was chased out of the family home, so he moved into a shack.
But he was also chased out of the shack as he couldn’t pay rent.
So madala Vukile Bhuqa has now made the Gugulethu Cemetery in Cape Town his home, where he sleeps on top of a stranger’s grave.
One might think he has nightmares, but the 55-year-old sleeps well.
“I sleep here all night and I feel like I’m sleeping at home,” he said.
He doesn’t know the relatives of the person buried in the grave and said they have never visited since he started sleeping on the graveyard. However, he one day came back after going to look for food to find his clothes and blankets missing.
He looked around and found them under a tree, but he is not aware who removed them.
“I wanted to sleep on the graves of my family members who are buried in the same graveyard, but their graves do not have a structure built around them like the one I am sleeping on,” he said.
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Asked about his family, madala Vukile said he has family in Emaholweni in Nyanga and in NY 43 in Gugulethu, as well as in Makhaza.
He said he has never been married, but has a daughter. But he said he doesn’t know where his daughter is.
He said he enjoys sleeping at the graveyard as it was a better home than being around people who don’t love him. All he wants is help to get an ID, grant money and to go to Ngqamakwe.
“I know nobody cares about me, but all I want is to leave,” he said.
Family member Betty Bhuqa-Williams (68) from Gugulethu said she wasn’t interested in madala Vukile.
“It’s a long story, but I really don’t care. I have been good to him. I gave him food and accommodation, but all he did was say hurtful words to me. Nobody in the family likes him around,” she said.
Sangoma Lonwabo Mqungwana from Mbekweni said: “This is not normal. The family of this man needs to remove him from the grave and take him to a sangoma so that he can be cleansed.”
