In a quest to address shortage of burial space in eThekwini, the Municipality has 8000 new graves available to allow residents to give their loved ones respectful and dignified burial process.

The Municipality has around 65 cemeteries and 97 percent of them at full capacity, as well, close to two third of them no longer operational. This posed a huge challenge for the City and as such, there was an urgent need to come up with other burial alternatives.

Head of Parks, Recreation and Culture Thembinkosi Ngcobo said that it was during this predicament that the Municipality resolved in relandscaping Loon Road Cemeteries. “This process means we exhume human remains in all gravesites that are ten years and older, take them and rebury them at a smaller scale cemetery where they will remain permanently,” he said.

The Municipality instituted this method, which it felt appropriate to make way for new grave sites. “Through this, families who want to visit the gravesides of their loved ones will be able to do so. They will have full control over the grave spaces, and be able to perform appropriate funeral ritual,” added Ngcobo

He said this action was necessitated by the high demand of burial space. To further meet this need, the City is developing a 30-year plan for provision of burial services.

“Land has been identified specifically for burial space, specialists are currently busy with environmental impact assessment and geotechnical assessment to ascertain if the land is suitable for graveyards,” added Ngcobo.