Durban – The Msunduzi Municipality is in a race against time to acquire land for burials as its biggest cemetery is on the verge of being shut down.
Opposition parties said other smaller council-owned cemeteries in the Pietermaritzburg area were quickly running out of space. In its bid to avoid the situation, the municipality has identified parcels of land to be used as burial sites.
However, concerns have been expressed that the plans could run into difficulty because the earmarked land could spark controversy.
One piece of land in Hollingwood is at the centre of a dispute as Sobantu residents want a housing settlement to be established there.
Another unidentified piece of land, Lamondale, earmarked for a cemetery, is a subject of an investigation following allegations that it was purchased at a massively inflated price.
Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said the city’s biggest cemetery, Mountain Rise, was essentially closed as it was already operating above capacity.
“The cemetery is full, we are going to be announcing its closure soon, burials are now being carried out on road reserves. The only people that will continue to be buried there are people who already bought their plots,” he said.
Thebolla said the municipality had identified three land parcels that could be developed as a cemetery. Thebolla said, they would expand the eThembeni cemetery.
The municipality has set aside about R8 million to develop it, putting in internal roads, toilets and ablution facilities.
“The capacity of the burial is big. We estimate that in phase 1 there is a capacity of 50000 graves. We do not anticipate that there could be more than that in deaths, even with the deaths from Covid-19 we have been fortunate that there have been no deaths in our area,” he said.
He said they would be engaging with the Sobantu community on the use of Hollingwood.
“We have a housing backlog not just in Sobantu but in all of Msunduzi. Within the Hollingwood area there will be a portion that will be set aside for the building of houses,” he said.
Thebolla said the municipality also had a third piece of land that could be developed as a cemetery.
“The municipality owns this land, but the circumstances around its acquisition are currently being investigated.”
The Mercury has been reliably informed that the municipality paid R20m for the land when its actual value was around R6m.
Thebolla refused to comment on the allegation except that the matter was currently under investigation.
He said while the municipality was not in crisis mode yet, ground burials would not be sustainable in the long term and could be damaging to the landscape of the
city.
“The municipality will soon be engaging in an extensive public education campaign to educate community members on other burial options to encourage communities to pursue other burials including cremations.
“We do not want a situation whereby if you come to town, all you see are graves when you look around, but that is where we are going if we do not change,” he said.
African Christian Democratic Party councillor Rienus Niemand said the commissioning of new cemeteries was a must as the city was running out of burial spaces.
“A number of cemeteries have reached saturation point, the present state of the four cemeteries leaves much to be desired, they are poorly maintained,” he said.