By A Correspondent- The bereaved families gave their late loved ones decent burials, placing flowers and other items on the graves to show their love.

Then they came back later to speak to their ancestors at Petersfield Cemetery in Springs, Ekurhuleni, only to find that the graves had been trampled by goats.

Relatives are even worried that the number tags on the graves may disappear.

Irene Williams said it seemed the owners did not care where the goats grazed.

“Some graves don’t have tombstones because the owners are planning to erect them later.”

Mourner Daniel Ntuthu said it might be a challenge for people later if they could not identify their graves if the tags were gone.

“Some people end up performing rituals and putting tombstones on the wrong graves,” he said.

Edwin Nyathi said this was putting pressure on families who did not have money to erect stones.

Mourners wanted the municipality to do something about the goats as they felt their ancestors were being disrespected.

Daily Sun saw that about 10 graves had been trampled on. Most were new and some had stones.

Goats were believed to be from the nearby Everest squatter camp.

Sangoma Mandla Madolweni said it may happen that people would end up calling the wrong ancestors because of the wrong graves.“These people eventually bring bad luck on themselves because they have engaged the wrong people, and ancestors don’t know.”

Municipality spokesman Zweli Dlamini said when grave tags disappeared, they always had records.

He appealed to animal owners to look after their livestock, and said officials would investigate.

-dailysun