Various religious groups and the Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission (CRL) say cremation should not be forced on families.

This comes after the City of Johannesburg announced that it was running out of burial space.

The Metro has encouraged residents to opt for cremation or consider reburials. It says Westpark Cemetery will be full by May this year.

Westpark Cemetery was opened in 1942 and has been Johannesburg’s key burial site since the late 1950s. The graveyard covers 79 hectares.

It is divided into various sectors including Christian, Muslim and Jewish burial sites, among others.

There is also a Heroes Acre section where well-known South Africans have been laid to rest.

With only four months left before it reaches full capacity, the cemetery has started limiting burials to 15 a day since January this year.

The City’s cemetery manager, Azola Manjanti, says cremation and reburials are optional.

“We’ve released the statement that the graveyard is getting full to capacity in the next four months. We do have cremation as an option and we see now across denominations, people are starting to cremate. We are encouraging people to cremate – it’s a safe and sustainable way and it’s going to serve space for the future generations. We still have three more cemeteries, Waterfall, Olifantsvlei and Diepsloot which can carry us for the next 30 years and also, we have reopening and reburials. As much as Westpark is going to get to full capacity, we will still continue with the reopens and reburials and above-ground burials.”

Commission against violation of rights

The CRL Commission has cautioned the Metro, saying it will look into by-laws to ensure that residents’ cultural rights are not violated.

Although the metro insists they’re not forcing people into cremation, the commission emphasised there are people who aren’t ready to be forced into cremation; and are willing to take the legal route if that happens.

“So, the issue of recycling of graves, we’ve heard Joburg Metro at some point saying they’re also running out of graves a few weeks ago, imploring people that they must cremate or that they move into the recycling of graves. We don’t know what mechanism they will use as they recycle graves – whether it will be a random methodology or whatever, we will be talking to the Joburg Metro to find out what they mean when they said they’re running out of graves,” says Chairperson of the Commission, Thoko Mkwanazi-Xaluva.

Muslim community says reopening of burials is an option 

The Muslim burial area at the cemetery has an additional two months before it reaches full capacity.  The group says it intends to promote the re-opening of graves as one of their main options.

Mohamed Laher, Vice Chairperson of the Johannesburg Muslim Cemetery Association, says cremation is not an option. 

“We have to promote reopening of graves – that’s called the step-up programme. That means here in Westpark, we go nine feet so we can have four people in the grave and from one body to the next body, it needs to be sixty centimetres apart – so that’s our first option. Our other option is to find other graveyards. Cremation is not an option because it’s not allowed in our religion.” 

The Heroes Acre at the cemetery is said to still have ample space and the Jewish section will also take about a year before it reaches full capacity.

The City of Johannesburg says is now looking into building a tourist road on Heroes Acres due to the number of people visiting the section.

The city is also considering one at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto where high profile South Africans have also been buried. 

VIDEO | Westpark Cemetery to reach full capacity by May: