Doreen Mokgolo
The dead at the Geduld cemetery are not at peace.
Nyaope addicts have been smoking their ashes and selling their urns for scrap.
The addicts, who have been breaking into the compartments where the urns are stored, have been sleeping in the deserted office buildings of the site in Geduld near Springs, Gauteng.
They have also stolen anything else of value, especially metal.
Resident Tammy Ngubeni said they have heard the addicts add the ashes to the nyaope powder to increase the quantity and to get them higher.
“They also sell it to traditional healers,” she said.
“It is devastating to see how people no longer have regard for the dead. The drugs are not only destroying the addicts but the families of the deceased as well.”
One nyaope addict, Sam (not his real name), who lives in one of the offices near the gravesite, confirmed that they sell the ashes to the traditional healers for R500.
He said the healers place orders for the ashes and they go to the gravesites searching for what is left.
“This is easy money for us but it is difficult for us to find the ashes now that so many sites have been vandalised,” he said.
Traditional healer Mzala Mabuza confirmed that the human ashes are used for healing when a patient has been cursed, can’t walk, or to help them sleep.
Community Policing Forum member Raymond Tayob says the cemetery has been identified as a crime hotspot.
People who want to perform rituals or visit their deceased families get mugged and hijacked.
The CPF is now patrolling the site 24/7.
