Legislation giving Durban the power to recycle graves is to be scrutinised to see if it does not violate people’s cultures and religion.
“We will investigate to see if it [the legislation] violates cultural or religious rights because there have been concerns about the recycling of graves,” said Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva of the commission for the promotion and protection of the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities.
She said the commission would soon start investigating the KwaZulu-Natal Cemeteries and Crematoria Act. The recommendations would be taken to the Law Reform Commission.
“If it is found that it [the Act] violates cultural and religious rights, it will mean that it is unconstitutional and has to be changed,” said Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.
She was speaking during a workshop in Durban organised by the commission to hear opinions about the city’s programme of recycling graves.
Durban is recycling graves to curb a shortage of burial space.
The workshop was attended by religious groups and officials from the city’s cemeteries department.
There were occasions during the workshop when emotions ran high between members of the commission and city officials.
‘Who goes on top of whom?’
This comes after Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said she found it problematic that the city “just decided who goes on top of whom”.
Because of the serious shortage of space, the city now reuses graves which are more than 10 years old by burying new remains on top of old remains.
“I think there is a problem if government decides who gets on top of whom,” she said.
“Once the government starts putting hands in people’s lives that becomes a problem. That is interfering in people’s lives.”
Thembinkosi Ngcobo, the city’s cemeteries head, quickly responded to Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.
“It is unfortunate that some members are emotional. We thought that they [commission members] would be objective. It is like we came here to be hanged,” Ngcobo said.
Crisis
It was important that people engaged constructively so that a solution would be found. He said the city could soon face a crisis if a solution was not found.
Of the city’s 60 cemeteries, 59 were already full, he said.
Ngcobo said the number of people buried each year had increased astronomically in the past 10 years because of the high number of HIV/Aids-related deaths.
“There are no sites at all. We have tried several times to persuade people to consider cremating their loves ones, but some don’t want to do it because of cultural or religious reasons,” said Ngcobo.
He said there was no land available for burials because most land was either near water sources or the soil was not suitable for burials.
The city would host a conference in July this year to deliberate on the issue of the shortage of graves. – Sapa