Martin Endjala
Gibeon village council has resolved to address the issues of vandalism of graves in the village cemetery.
The council indicated that vandals damaged many gravestones in the village two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, the Gibeon village council chairperson, Sharon Bezuidenhoud informed the Windhoek Observer that the council would be deploying a clean-up group to the cemetery.
“I was unaware of such vandalism until Mr. Ignatius called me to tell me about it. I have invited him to come to my office to discuss the matter, but we couldn’t meet due to other equally important matters he had to attend to,” she said.
Bezuidenhoud said she found out about the cemetery’s vandalism from community leader Ignatius Berend.
She said such incidents as this ought to be brought to the council’s attention.
“It is very disappointing to hear about this incident. We would like to urge the community to report incidents to our office or the police. So we bring the people responsible to book. As we speak, nobody knows who did it, and no arrest has been made because no case was made,” she said.
She explained that a cost determination has not been conducted yet because the matter was only recently brought to her attention.
The Windhoek Observer understands that police reports in the town indicate that the vandalism occurred last year, and no community member came forward to report the matter to the police.
According to police reports, the cemetery is easily accessible due to its lack of fencing.
To prevent future vandalism and theft, the police have suggested fencing off the cemetery.
Berend discovered the vandalism and said it was done at night, making it hard to trace those responsible.
He said that a need has been created to catch the person who vandalized the graveyard.
“A cemetery ought to be respected, and when you look at the cost of the damage, it is just so disappointing because people paid a lot of money for his things, and to see grave tombstones damaged like this is really bad,” he said.
He suggested that the council use the di-bushing budget to fix the cemetery and to fence the area off.
Berend added that this type of damage could be devastating to community members who have lost loved ones.
He said most graves had been affected but could not determine the exact number.
In 2022, a similar incident occurred at Ndjaba Cemetery in Ongwediva in the Oshana region.
The Gibeon council said unemployed youth from the village will be put to work to clean the cemetery.
