City of Tshwane grapples with cemetery space shortage
Cemeteries and burial spaces are rapidly depleting in Tshwane. Government, religious and traditional leaders are exploring solutions.
The City of Tshwane is experiencing a critical shortage of burial spaces.
At a recent multistakeholder meeting, Obakeng Ramabodu, the MMC for Environment & Agriculture Management, noted that Tshwane is on its way to running out of burial spaces in less than 30 years.
TSHWANE: BURIAL SPACE SHORTAGE
The meeting – which focused on determining alternative burial arrangements – saw Ramabodu meeting with various parties. These included church leaders, traditional healers and members of the South African Local Government Association, among others.
Per an annual city report, approximately 6 000 burial spaces are required annually.
At this current rate, space capacity will become depleted between the years 2046 and 2056.
“The existing cemetery space is projected to last approximately 20 to 30 years,” said Ramabodu, per IOL. “With the land becoming increasingly limited, the city is faced with a challenge to identify new burial sites, while we must do our best to upgrade existing ones.”
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS
While it sounds easy on paper to simply increase the number of cemeteries and burial grounds in Tshwane, the reality presents significant challenges.
This is due to the number of current environmental constraints. Specifically, there are limitations presented by high groundwater tables.
“High groundwater tables make the development of land for a cemetery impossible,” explained Ramabodu, per The Citizen. “These environmental constraints further complicate the city’s ability to expand its burial infrastructure.”
Socio-geographic factors such as urbanisation, population growth, illegal land occupations and repatriations also play a role in these difficulties.
WHAT’S BEING DONE
Alternative solutions, including cremation, have been proposed. However, for families in Tshwane, where only one crematorium operates, challenges like potentially long waiting times pose an issue. Similarly, travelling to crematoriums outside the city incurs its own set of high costs.
What’s more, in a country like South Africa, where cemeteries are regarded as sacred places of remembrance, it will be difficult to align these alternatives with established religious and spiritual practices.
As such, said Ramabodu, “continued engagement and further consultations” are needed.
“Despite the diversity of views expressed during the roundtable discussion, stakeholders agreed that continued engagement and further consultations are essential in identifying solutions that balance environmental sustainability, land availability and respect for cultural values,” he declared.
Here’s hoping these discussions will bear fruit for the sake of Tshwane’s citizens, especially those who wish to do right by their deceased loved ones.
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