Burial records reveal thousands of missing bodies and graves

[caption id="attachment_35857" align="alignright" width="405"]  Motherwell Cemetery. Picture: Brian Witbooi, 11 June 2014[/caption]

NELSON Mandela Bay is haunted by thousands of missing bodies. While there are too many graves and too few bodies at some cemeteries, there are too many bodies and too few graves at others, according to burial records.

Amid the shambles, a Port Elizabeth family is desperately searching for the grave of a family member buried at the Motherwell cemetery in 2005.

The burial plot, which is supposed to hold the body of Zanele Ntayiya is, in fact, occupied by someone else.

This shocking state of the city's cemeteries was revealed in a confidential report by the council's public health department, which indicates major discrepancies between the number of graves and the records.

At the Papenkuil and North End cemeteries there are fewer graves than the records show, according to the report.

At Papenkuil, the records indicate there should be about 56000 bodies, but a physical count found only 29000 graves.

At the North End cemetery, there should be 50000 bodies, but there are only 26000 graves.

The reverse was found at the Motherwell cemetery, where there were 33000 more graves than the records indicate. Although 71000 graves were found, there were only about 38000 burials recorded - Rochelle de Kock and Yoliswa Sobuwa