Nyaope addicts target the dead
They steal ashes of cremated bodies to mix with drugs 50 memorials vandalised for a fix
Drug addicts who have allegedly resorted to a bizzare method of getting high are suspected of stealing ashes of the dead from a cemetery so that they can smoke them.
An employee at Mooifontein Cemetery in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, who asked not to be named for fear of losing his job, said more than 50 memorials were vandalised by nyaope users to steal the ashes.
He said the theft has been going on for some time and it was difficult to keep out the thugs who gain access to the graveyard through holes in the fence where people went in and out as they pleased.
“Nyaope addicts vandalise these things because they smoke the ashes. We man the gate but do not carry out patrols in the cemetery,” the man said.
“Sometimes someone walks in but you do not see what they are up to.”
When the Sowetan visited the cemetery last week, empty wooden boxes that used to store ashes and broken glass vases were all that was left of some compartments, with memorial stones bearing the names of the deceased missing. Some were still intact, though.
People went in and out of the cemetery freely without being stopped by the guards. Our car was neither searched at the gate nor were we asked to fill in a register.
Sowetan interviewed known nyaope addicts at the Leralla train station in Tembisa who said they had heard of people who laced the drug with ashes stolen from cemeteries.
One of the addicts said people who smoked the powder were not in their circles. “They smoke it in the other areas but we have not seen anyone smoke it here,” he said.
Another one said she had heard rumours about the powder but she only laced her drug with dagga.
“We only hear about the powder from other people.”
However, a third addict said he had never heard of such a concoction and that it sounded scary.
Police spokesman Captain Lesibana Molokomme said they had not received reports of cases of vandalised memorials from the cemetery. “According to our records, we do not have such cases,” he said.