Durban’s plan to recycle graves
eThekwini Municipality called to residents to stake a claim to family graves or face sites being recycled for fresh burials.
|||Durban - eThekwini Municipality’s call to residents to stake claims to family graves, or face them being recycled for fresh burials, has been met with horror and pragmatism from traditional and religious leaders.
But Thembinkosi Ngcobo – the municipality’s head of Parks, Leisure, Cemeteries, Recreation and Culture – said on Sunday that the recycling of old graves was “nothing new” because the remains of 1.5 million people were already buried in just 560 000 graves in the city’s 65 cemeteries.
On Friday, the municipality called on the public to claim all unclaimed family graves, by renewing grave leases to ensure graves more than 10 years old were legally leased.
Failing to do this meant that the municipality reserved its right to reuse graves.
“This will be done in full consideration of other agreements, including 25 and 50-year perpetuity leased graves,” municipal spokeswoman, Tozi Mthethwa, said.
“The public has four months to come forward to lease, claim or renew lease agreements,” she said.
Mthethwa said the city’s cemeteries were at capacity with 9 600 burials and 1 200 cremations annually.
She said 48 cemeteries were already full. “Alternative solutions had to be sought because the population of Durban is increasing rapidly at approximately 4.5% annually, according to the 2013 census.
“Coupled with the high mortality rate, practical solutions are needed,” Mthethwa said.
According to eThekwini cemetery by-laws, the city may reuse graves which are more than 10 years old, where leases have not been renewed, after advertising its intention to allow interested lessees to apply for renewals.
Ngcobo said recycling was a “practical” solution that predated 1994 and more than one person was already buried in almost every grave.
“For instance, Stellawood Cemetery has 40 000 gravesites, but we have 120 000 remains there, so this means on average every gravesite has many people,” he said.
Ngcobo said to apply for a renewal, lessees should visit their local municipal office with their identity documents, grave title documents, or grave numbers if the document had been lost.
He said the city was legally not allowed to reuse graves of historical value, that were more than 60 years old.
But religious and traditional leaders were shocked at the call to claim graves for recycling.
KZN House of Traditional Leaders chairman, Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza, said Zulu culture did not allow the practice.
“In our culture, we respect graves. Once a person has passed away, we respect that person and we can’t do anything to remove the grave except to discuss with the family,” he said.
“If my father died today, even in 10 years, I will go and pay respects to my father at his grave and even my child will go there to respect his grandfather. If you bury someone over my father, what is that?”
Anglican Bishop of KwaZulu-Natal, Rubin Phillip, said he was “appalled” at the move.
“Ethically, it is totally unacceptable that that sort of attitude is being adopted. It is being insensitive to the families,” he said.
“For people of all faiths, death isn’t burying someone and then forgetting about them. It is much deeper than that and for most faiths there is still a connection.”
“I appeal to the leadership to rethink its decision. There needs to be consultation with the families before we do anything,” he said.
Father Brett Williams, chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban, said the living had a responsibility to bury people with dignity and respect, and to ensure graves were maintained.
“It’s very important for us, as Catholics, the care with which we bury the dead, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead so we bury the dead with the hope of the resurrection and those mortal remains must be treated with respect because they will share the glory of Christ,” he said.
President of the Hindu Maha Sabha, Ashwin Trikamjee, said most Hindus preferred cremation although some still followed old burial traditions.
“We would encourage people to rather go the cremation route to solve the problem. More and more people are starting to use our crematoriums,” he said.
“It is getting problematic because funerals are having to wait a day or two, which was never a problem in the past.”
Funeral Directors’ Association chairman, Logan Chetty, said the grave shortage was “dire” and the municipality had restricted funeral parlours to one burial a week per cemetery.
“I can say 90 to 95% of people are cremating because it’s the way out. Very few people visit graves – unlike the old days when people used to visit on a Sunday – because of the crime. Even funeral professionals are being robbed,” Chetty said.
The South African Muslims Network could not be reached for comment.
Daily News