Popular nightclub The Voodoo Lounge might offer more voodoo than residents of northern Johannesburg suburb Linksfield can stomach.

The club has been built on the edge of council land where Johannesburg buried victims of highly contagious diseases during the first half of the 1900s.

Residents, who already resent the noise from the club, now fear that recent digging and further development might unearth the graves of people and animals that died of ills such as black plague, smallpox, syphilis and anthrax.

According to the City of Johannesburg website, about 7000 people are buried in the historic cemetery, originally bought by the Transvaal Republican Government in 1895.

Metal markers to indicate graves have been stolen, fuelling fears that development might expose corpses and spark a health crisis.

Read More