Family upset over loss of graves violation docket
THE mysterious disappearance of a docket relating to a farmer who allegedly flattened about 30 graves is causing concerns for a Limpopo family.
The Seleise family in the Bolobedu south, about 35km east of Tzaneen, has been trying to figure out what could have happened to the case they had opened at the Letsitele police station.
The family had opened a case of violation of graves after about 30 graves of their relatives were allegedly flattened by a farmer on whose farm the family had lived for many years.
Abram Seleise told Sowetan that the family was informed by the investigating officer that the case docket has gone missing.
He said the family had discovered in 2015 that the graves of their relatives, who were buried on the farm Duplex, had been flattened.
“Following the discovery, we opened a case in Letsitele and were assured that the matter was being investigated. And now we are told the docket is nowhere to be found.
“How can such a serious case disappear in the hands of the police?” asked Seleise.
He said they wanted the farmer, identified as Riaan du Plessis, to pay for allegedly flattening the graves.
“As a family we want compensation because it is even difficult to identify the spot where the graves were,” he said, without disclosing how much they were looking for as compensation.
Attempts to get comment from Du Plessis drew a blank yesterday as his cellphone was answered by his personal assistant, Loubelle van Wyk, who said the farmer was not available.
Nkuzi Development Association, an organisation fighting for the rights of farm dwellers, said they were concerned that farm owners continued to ignore laws of the land by violating graves and not being held to account.
“The issue of Duplex farm is not an isolated incident and we are worried that police are not acting as much as they should to bring those responsible to book,” said Nkuzi’s Vasco Mabunda yesterday.
Police spokesman Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said the matter was being investigated to find out what could have happened to the docket.
Sowetan reported in July that Du Plessis was allegedly refusing the Seleise family permission to enter the farm to perform rituals after the graves were violated.
The case was opened at Letsitele police station in 2015. The family was told that the docket had been sent to the National Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision, until recent developments that the docket had gone missing.