NEWS
Second Soweto cemetery also full - now 2/3 bodies per grave, 13 January 2006

THE New Roodepoort Cemetery in Dobsonville, Soweto, final resting place of thousands of people and some fallen heroes, is full. However, in an attempt to extend the lifespan of the graveyard, City Parks is promoting stacked burials. There is no longer space for first burials, but the cemetery is now open for second and third burials.
“Families can bury up to three people in the same grave as long as the grave is deep enough to accommodate them,” says Alan Buff, City Park’s senior manager of technical support and training.
“We have been doing this for years [at other cemeteries] and it is more affordable for the community as they won’t need to buy more graves. They will only have to pay the amount necessary for opening the existing grave.”
The New Roodepoort Cemetery has 10 sections, with each sector consisting of eight blocks. Buff could not say when the whole cemetery is expected to be full.
“It all depends on the death cycle. All we can say at this point is that the cemetery is full for first burials and it might take another 20 to 30 years.”
Second burials were made possible even before first burials were confirmed full. As burial space in Joburg becomes scarce, the City council is calling on communities to use other methods for treating their dead.
People should consider cremation, suggests Region 8 cemeteries manager William Legodi, adding that if only people could be educated on why cremation should be done, where it originated from and the reason behind its use, the cemetery could take another 50 to 60 years of burials.
“Sometimes people think that their people are [being] punished when they are cremated.”
A member of the cemetery’s staff says people come daily to visit the graves of their loved ones or to say prayers. Most funerals are conducted over weekends and during the week people clean the graves.
Buff says the cemetery is a heritage site. It was opened in 1951 and many soldiers from the South African War are buried there. A triangle-shaped memorial lists their names. Their bodies were exhumed from Doornkop, a township in Soweto, and reburied in the New Roodepoort cemetery.
Despite its proximity to the township, the cemetery was reserved for whites until the early 1990s. It operated under the Roodepoort Town Council until 1996, when the City of Johannesburg took over its running. In 2001 a City agency, Johannesburg City Parks, took over.
"City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" - "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)";

© Speak Out Terms of use