Gun-toting criminals stalk Avalon

Security beefed up after burial society members hit

THE Avalon Cemetery near Lenasia has become a hunting ground for brazen criminals who have held up people at gunpoint and robbed them.

Khalil Shaik, 50, and Basheer Makhande, 42, of the Saaberie Chishty Society (a Muslim burial service) were preparing for a funeral at the cemetery when they were robbed. Shaik said he and Makhande had noticed the two men at the cemetery when they arrived.

“While we were busy preparing for a funeral, the two men accosted us.

“They demanded money and cellphones. I gave it to them, but they assaulted me and threw me centimetres away from the freshly dug grave.

“Makhande tried to get help, but they shot him in the leg as they were trying to flee,” Shaik said.

Shaik injured his back and Makhande was rushed to hospital then discharged to his home.

Shaik said: “We only hope the city beefs up security.

“I’ve heard of other robberies at the cemetery over recent months. People come here to mourn the loss of their loved ones or visit their graves — but they stand a risk of losing their lives.”

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a case of armed robbery was being investigated but that no arrests had been made.

“The police are following several leads to trace one of the suspects, who is believed to be living in Soweto,” he said.

The Avalon Cemetery is the final resting place of many prominent political stalwarts, including Joe Slovo, Helen Joseph, the ANC’s Lilian Ngoyi, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress Zephania Mothopeng and Hector Pieterson, the first victim of the 1976 Soweto uprising.

The spokeswoman for the department of parks and recreation, Jenny Moodley, said Johannesburg City Parks had placed three day shift and three night shift guards at Avalon Cemetery. Over the weekends, an additional four guards and ushers would patrol.

“The SAPS and the metro police will also make random patrols,” she said. “The challenge is that this facility is huge and plagued by opportunistic crime. Mourners are urged to exercise the necessary caution and refrain from taking valuables into the cemetery,” said Moodley.