ENDUMENI Municipality mayor Siyabonga Ndlovu hopes to speed up the process of new burial sites in the city in order to avoid the crisis of shrinking burial space. I SUPPLIED
Durban — Endumeni Municipality in the north of KwaZulu-Natal is facing a shortage of burial space in the city because of the effect of Covid-19 which claimed a large number of lives in the country in 2020.
So says mayor Siyabonga Ndlovu, adding that the city could face a huge dilemma if the cemeteries’ construction project was not completed in the next six months.
“We were all shocked after realising the cemeteries sites that have been used for years were filling up rapidly in 2021 and 2022. After noticing this obstacle, we decided to get another piece of land for cemeteries,” he said.
The communities of Dundee, Glencoe, Sthembile and Sibongile townships bury their family members in the Dundee and Glencoe cemeteries, the only two cemeteries available, and they too are running out of space.
“After identifying the land, we decided to review our budget and set aside R12.5 million for new land for cemeteries,” the mayor said.
“We had to pause some projects to quickly address the disaster so we don’t find ourselves facing issues of scarce burial space. We hope we will be done with the project in the next six months because if we come across unfortunate circumstances during the process, community members will be forced to opt for cremation and reusing family graves.”
Ndlovu said that even though the Covid-19 outbreak had caught them off guard, the city aimed to fast-track the project so there would be an alternative plan.
Resident Innocent Mbele said they were happy with the municipality’s plan to avoid issues stemming from full burial sites.
“Some of us live in townships and burying family members in our homes was not an option. As people who are culturally oriented, cremation was also not an option and we are happy with the municipality’s move,” said Mbhele.
eThekwini Municipality is another KZN municipality running out of burial space.
In 2020, the municipality introduced alternative burial methods, which include cremation and the reuse of family graves, due to a shortage of space for new cemeteries.
Cemeteries that are 10 years old are reused if families are unable to pay a 10-year lease for the gravesite.
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