City Acts to Provide More Burial Space in Cemeteries Nearing Full Capacity

The City Parks and Nature Conservation Directorate of the City of Cape Town undertook a Metropolitan Cemetery Study in 2003. This study included an audit of the existing cemeteries and identified areas of concern where communities would be negatively affected in the short to medium term due to the limited burial space available.

Cemeteries experiencing the greatest pressure currently are Guguletu, Goedehoop and Gordon's Bay (in the Helderberg) and Mfuleni. Khayelitsha will also start experiencing problems within 12 months.

To overcome this the report identified "opportunity " cemeteries where extra burial space could be made available by utilising sections of the cemeteries previously set aside for landscaping or where the installation of drains could lower the water table. These opportunity cemeteries include Maitland, Muizenberg, Plumstead, Guguletu and Atlantis.

Other cemeteries where capacity could be increased by extending onto adjacent land include Khayelitsha Cemetery and the Klip Road Cemetery.

Communities are encouraged to utilise any cemeteries of their choice throughout the City. This will assist in relieving pressure on those cemeteries that are fast nearing their full capacity. This freedom of choice is a privilege people could formerly never enjoy because of the apartheid regime's notorious Group Areas Act.

Apart from the above-mentioned, short term actions taken to overcome these pressures include:

• Guguletu: Areas previously landscaped are being prepared for graves. The tariffs at the Welmoed Cemetery, in the Eerste River area, are the same as the Guguletu tariffs and a section of Welmoed has therefore been set aside for residents of Guguletu to use if they wish to retain their Guguletu identity.
  
• Mfuleni: Adult graves are being prepared in the previous children's section, because the section that was set aside was too big. A section of Welmoed has been set aside for Mfuleni residents to use if they wish to retain their identity as the Mfuleni Community.
  
• Helderberg: Helderberg residents can make use of Rusthof Cemetery in the Strand.
• Modderdam: The tariffs at Welmoed Cemetery match those of the Modderdam Cemetery, which is nearing capacity and does not have any more private graves.
  

Issued by: Communication
City Of Cape Town
Tel: 021 400-2201
Fax: 021 419 1929