Paupers’ graves are meant for the forgotten. But what happens when the people buried there were never forgotten at all? In Cape Town, an undertaker’s alleged fraud has exposed a failure of the systems meant to protect the dead – and devastated those left behind. Rebecca Davis explains.
Reporting by: Rebecca Davis
Edited & animations by: Joel Seboa
Filmed by: Joel Seboa
Produced by: Emilie Gambade
Creative lead: Malibongwe Tyilo
Sub-edited by: Kevin Flynn
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Read more:
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-02-10-how-cape-town-families-discovered-their-loved-ones-in-paupers-graves/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-02-15-city-of-cape-towns-wall-of-silence-as-fafamilies-demand-answers-on-paupers-grave/
