July 3, 2003
By Thomas Thale
AS Joburg gradually runs out of burial space City Parks, the council utility responsible for developing and maintaining open spaces in the city, has called on city residents to explore alternative ways of burying the dead.
Of the 35 cemeteries in the city, 26 have already reached capacity, spokesperson for City Parks, Jenny Moodley, said. The other nine will remain operational only until 2009.
The utility, in a statement issued on Wednesday, appealed to residents to consider stack burials and cremations as alternative, but still dignified, forms of burial.
But many communities remain resistant to the idea of second or subsequent burials in the same gravesite and to cremations. "This places pressure in terms of grave space available," Geoffrey Cooke, executive director of operations at City Parks, said in the statement.
The city has experienced a 12 percent increase a year in burials and cremations over the last five years, Cooke added. "City Parks would require an additional minimum of 1500 hectares of burial space to meet the needs of the community at the present population rate of approximately three million and at a primary burial rate of 2000 a hectare," said Cooke.
Stack-burials are cheaper than regular burials, according to Moodley. The average burial fee in the city is R1 160 for an adult and R580 for a child. The fee for a second burial in the same gravesite is only R300. Cremation costs R450 for an adult and R350 for a child.
Yet cemetery space remains under-utilised. If residents were to accept the idea of stack burials, said Cooke, there would be "burial space for an additional 1 125 000 people". This figure translated into four times the current availability of burial space.
The nine cemeteries still operational are Avalon in Soweto, Eldorado Park, West Park in Emmarentia, New Roodepoort, Midrand, Elandsfontein in Ennerdale, Lenasia, Newclare (Muslim Cemetery) and Newclare.
The city has two crematoria, one in Brixton and the other in Lenasia.
Two new cemeteries are to be developed, one in Midrand and the other in Diepsloot. The Midrand cemetery will be on land donated by the Mia family. Construction work on the Diepsloot graveyard is currently underway.
In an attempt to promote cremations, said Cooke, City Parks has installed a 'Wall of Remembrance' at the two city crematoria, where ash can be deposited.
"Cemeteries can no longer be seen as a repository for the dead but as dignified environmental spaces, which adds value to life, history and our heritage while protecting basic family values and meeting the challenges of current needs and trends in the City," Cooke said.
