The Braamfontein Cemetery has seen bouts of vandalism to its Ash Wall and graves, and whilst volunteers work day and night to rebuild these people’s memories, there is no end in sight.
Saying goodbye to a loved one is already the hardest thing a person can do. But, laying a person to rest in peace and then seeing their tombstone smashed into pieces must feel like losing them twice. Or, placing a loved one’s urn behind an engraved plaque only to find their name in pieces with their ashes missing, surely cracks the heart wide open once again.
This is the reality for many families with loved ones buried at the Braamfontein Cemetery, as vandalism to its Ash Wall and graveyard began in March 2023. Since then, small groups of vandals continue to trash the cemetery to this day, almost a year and a half later.
Empty bottles, rubbish, and cigarette butts are amongst the rubbish left in-between the Ash Wall. Photo: Victoria Hill
Grave tombstones are vandalised beyond repair, with one such statue having its head brutally chopped off. Photo: Victoria Hill
Graves of reverends were smashed to pieces, vandalised, or disturbed in some other way. Photo: Victoria Hill
Plaques have been removed or smashed so that the writing is illegible on the Ash Wall. Photo: Victoria Hill
The lack of upkeep at the cemetery shows when dead flowers are not removed from gravesides. Photo: Victoria Hill
Rubble piled up against the Ash Wall creates a big eye-sore. Photo: Victoria Hill
A man can be seen entering the cemetery from the road due to lack of perimeter fencing. Photo: Victoria Hill
An ominous hut peaks out from the back of the graveyard, directly opposite the abandoned Braamfontein Station building. Photo: Victoria Hill
It is not clear why people who vandalise specifically target the Ash Wall, but Mike Nyathi, a security guard at Braamfontein Cemetery, speculates that the vandals most probably steal human ashes to mix with other drugs that they then smoke. Nyathi also mentioned how thieves smash into the Ash Wall, as family members will sometimes leave prize-possessions with their loved ones in their place of rest, which vandals then pawn for money.
Friends of Johannesburg Cemeteries (FOJC), a non-profit organisation and a group under the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, have been leading the restoration project of the vandalised Ash Wall at Braamfontein Cemetery. They depend entirely on donations to fund their projects.
Sarah Welham, convenor of FOJC, says the project is costly and time-consuming: “We spend R5000 a week on builders’ wages and at one point when we had [three] builders, we were paying out R7500 a week.”
Whilst the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo have “supplied us with much of the building material we needed, as well as 130 blank granite plaques,” Welham says, “we have had several appeals to the public for donations when required. Many people living overseas have donated very generously.”
To date, Welham estimates 6 000 niches and plaques have been repaired by FOJC, and the process isn’t a quick one. The longest and hardest part involves matching each name to the correct niche number and ensuring the correct ashes are placed behind the plaques. Only then can the plaque be engraved and reattached to the wall which is, in itself, another extensive process.
The reoccurring act of the vandalism to Braamfontein Cemetery is largely unexplained, yet Welham and Nyathi agree it is due to poor security. The security company preceding Cognizant Security Solutions were not “patrolling and spending time in the Ash Wall section of the cemetery to act as a deterrent to vandals”, says Welham.
Nyathi warned this Wits Vuvuzela journalistto not venture past a certain point due to a breach in the back boundary wall of the cemetery. Across the road is the old Braamfontein Station building which has seemingly been hijacked and inhabited by people who enter the premises for various reasons. Repairing this fence would “cost millions and the City of Johannesburg does not have the budget for that”, says Welham.
Azola Manjati, Manager for the Braamfontein and Brixton Cemeteries, told Wits Vuvuzela “this financial year, there is a budget allocated to repair the fence”, so things are looking up.
Nyathi said that when a funeral or cremation is in session, all security personnel remain in that vicinity to watch over the procession and vehicles, leaving the cemetery largely unguarded.
Nevertheless, after a great deal of work, FOJC organised a tour of the repaired Ash Wall in hopes of raising awareness to the issue of vandalism at Braamfontein Cemetery and showcase their hard work to family and friends. However, just days before the tour was meant to take place, the wall was once again struck down. Welham reports only 14 plaques were destroyed — this time.
The FOJC got back to work repairing the wall yet again, because they have undertaken the task to “restore the area to one of peace and dignity”. Welham further says “many of the families have moved away from Johannesburg and have been distraught that they were unable to deal with this problem themselves”.
However, after many cycles of repairing the Ash Wall just to have it vandalised again, the FOJC is staring into a dim future. They cannot continue to raise “thousands and thousands of rands to do the repairs” as “there is only so much the public is prepared to donate”. The next large-scale vandalism to the Ash Wall will have to go unrepaired, which is a harsh but necessary truth.
Besides the vandalism, Braamfontein Cemetery is quite rundown and unkept, with grass overgrown in much of the old area. With graves dating back to the 1800s, the cemetery is a historical place of rest for many souls.
However, rubbish from trespassers and vandals scatter the once serene grounds, causing the graves of many individuals to be covered in empty alcohol bottles, plastic bags, rubble, cigarette butts, and much more.
Manjati says Johannesburg City Parks are currently “supporting the Friends group and are working towards formalising [their] partnership” for the future, as they have the common goal to respect those that have passed and their families.
The desecration of graves and ashes is a sensitive social issue but is one that needs to be addressed before the saying “rest in peace” loses its meaning altogether.
FEATURED IMAGE: Plaques from the Ash Wall section of the cemetery have been ripped off their niches and smashed to pieces, with the ashes removed from the place-keeper altogether. Photo: Victoria Hill
Perceptions of graffiti in Johannesburg range from it being beautiful artworks to malicious damage of property. Removal of graffiti is a difficult process and where to draw the line between vandalism and art is often difficult to find.
STREET ART: Graffiti on the corner of Henry and De Korte street, Braamfontein done by graffiti artist Rasty and crew. Photo: Samantha Camara
Hanre Heunis spends his time removing graffiti from other people’s property. The managing director of a local graffiti removal service, Heunis believes there is an artistic side to the practice of street art. He says many property owners think that graffiti is vandalism because they did not choose to have their walls defaced or tagged (when a new graffiti artist spray-paints their name on a wall to practice and develop their own style).
Property owners who have been the victims of repeated tagging often remove the tags because it makes their business premises look unprofessional or decreases the value of the property. “There is a fine line between being artistic and repeat tagging,” said Heunis.
There is a high concentration of graffiti in the inner city and removing it is a highly-skilled, specialised and expensive process, says Heunis. It involves chemical testing, high pressure water tanks and newly developed products that often need to be imported from the United Kingdom due to a lack of local manufacturing. Removal is also extremely labour intensive as more porous surfaces require more applications.
But perceptions are shifting especially when artists ask for permission, according to Vorster, an ex-Witsie who did his honours in Fine Arts. “If you wake up in the morning and someone’s tagged your window it sucks … get permission and do your art … you’ll be surprised how many people say yes.”
Graffiti artists find it exciting to work illicitly at night but it often means that the quality of the work decreases because there is less time and more pressure to get the work done in a short amount of time, according to Vorster.
The other side of the (street art) coin
ADDING COLOUR: Comic style graffiti done by American graffiti artist, Pose in De Korte street, Braamfontein. Photo: Samantha Camara
In Johannesburg there are a few designated walls for street art on Barry Hertzog Avenue and Empire Road but Brian* says these walls are mostly used for graffiti style advertising and the limited amount of wall space restricts the art.
One of Vorster’s first tags was a Vodacom telephone box, he saw it as a victory when the box was removed. Vorster now gets permission for his work and is often commissioned to do murals. One of his commissioned pieces was removed for safety reasons because people were constantly taking photos at the wall, which made the owner feel unsafe.
Brian* says he doesn’t mind his art being removed: “It [the art] has its lifespan. It doesn’t faze me, I just need to do more. For every one that is taken down, I need to put up another one.”
Statements were found spray-painted on the Wits Great Hall stairs on Friday morning. Photo: Luke Matthews
CORRECTION: The article originally omitted the word “building” giving the impression that Umthombo is a student residence. Additionally, the term “racial statements” in the photo caption has been changed to “statements”.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
“Black power, Biko lives” and “fuck white racism” were the words that greeted Witsies as they approached the Great Hall this morning.
The graffiti appeared overnight, sprayed in black paint, on the steps of Wits’ most iconic building.
Student residences Sunnyside, Mens Res and the Umthombo building were also targeted in separate but apparently related incidents. The graffiti appeared to favour the renaming of buildings on campus. Mens Res residents found their building sprayed with “Robert Sobukwe Hall” while students at Sunnyside res found their res had been “renamed” after Winnie Madikizela.
Susan Laname, a Sunnyside resident, claimed that the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) may be responsible for the tagging of the buildings as the renaming of campus buildings was part of their election campaign.
Other buildings vandalised were Umthombo, Mens res and Sunnyside res. Photo: Luke Matthews
EFF chairman Vuyani Pambo confirmed members of his organisation were not involved in the spraying of the graffiti, saying he had only found out about it through social networks.
“We are not responsible for the tagging, we engage the university directly as we did about our campaign, he added.
“I, for one, think it’s telling, maybe the pressure the students are feeling, and this is one way in which they are finding expression,” said Pambo.
Wits Campus Control say they have no strong leads and little evidence as to the guilty parties.
“So far we have received the complaint and we have seen the graffiti and we are taking it very serious and we are doing own investigation,” said Lucky Khumela, Campus Control’s security and liaison manager .
Wits Sports Administration (WSA) has spent over an estimated R1 million in the last three months on repairing sports facilities, allegedly vandalised and abused by Wits students, on all Wits campuses.
While the issue has been ongoing for some time, the WSA is now struggling with a lack of finances to pay for on-going repairs.
“Sports admin simply does not have the budget to repair as well maintain all of Wits’ sport facilities. And over the years the sports budget has decreased,” said Vardhan.
The Vuvuzela was told that it costs WSA R300 000 to repair a single tennis court and that to replace damaged or broken tennis court fences will cost R80 000.
WSA, according to Vardhan, generates no profit and on some occasions have to get assistance from PIMD.
When asked by Vuvuzela if WSA was doing anything to improve security around the sports facilities Vardhan replied that locks are put on the facilities gates but they are either cut or damaged.
“Security is an issue and we at WSA have to constantly remind campus security to watch the students during major sports events as well as over the weekend and Friday afternoons.”
Vuvuzela observed that the service delivery gate to the west and east campus gyms have been left open since February and Wits students constantly “hang out” on the cricket pitch.
“Students have no respect for Wits sports property, they cut holes in the tennis fences and run across the cricket pitch in soccer boots,” said Vardhan.
WSA plans to generate enough funding to establish a mobile security team to monitor all of Wits’ sports facilities.
In addition to vandalising sports facilities WSA staff have also observed students vandalising sports ablutions facilities.
The walking of pets on the sports fields and the failure to clean up after them has also become an issue that has been largely publicised.
FREE FOR ALL: A lack of security is largely to blame for damage to majority of Wits' sports facilities. Photo by Akinoluwa Oyedele.
In this episode, we explore the feasibility of social housing for students, and the advantages and disadvantages that the inner city offers to the development of a student precinct.
