Vandals dig up graves of nuns

By Wendy Sa Joe

EAST LONDON -- In a macabre robbery, the skeletons of two Catholic sisters have been dug up and removed from the Mater Infirmorun -- Mother of the Sick -- cemetery in Izeli Valley in the last three to four days.

Izeli is about five kilometres outside King William's Town on the road to Woodlands.

The St Pius Convent spokesperson here, Sister Stephen Schneider, said that 560 nuns and 25 priests have been buried there over the past 100 years.

About a third of the tombstones have been damaged.

Schneider said that in the last few months the simple white tombstones had been broken and now recently the skeletons of two sisters were removed with only the coffin handles being left behind

"We were alerted during the week that the two coffins had been dug up and removed. There are people who live in that area who knew them and it's distressing," said Schneider.

She said wondered what the bones were needed for.

"Do they want them for Satanic acts, or do sangomas want them? Do they need virgin bones?" she asked.

The land near the cemetery belongs to the order, who live there. Schneider said that they have also been thinking of levelling the graves "because of the on-going vandalism and before it gets worse".

The skeletons are not the only things missing, as wire, iron poles and an iron gate have been removed. She said that shacks had been built on the sisters' ground nearby, but they had not asked anyone to leave.