Land is said to be a diminishing resource with cemeteries nearing saturation and land for new ones is unlikely to be provided for.
According to Daniel Schubert, managing director of Avalon Group, cremation will be commonplace within the next two decades.
“It is an undisputable fact that in the larger cities land availability for continuous ground burials will not happen,” says Schubert.
He explains that land is a diminishing resource and ground burials are a wanton underutilisation of this resource.
“It is important to respect and recognise every possible cultural and religious prerequisite regarding burial.
However, the current dire situation faced by the country is based on hard facts and alternative burial measures will simply have to be considered, he says.
Avalon is pioneering a world-first burial project and has built a new Crematory Monument concept in Bloemfontein at a cost of around R45 million.
It houses 48 000 niches in various walls of remembrance offering a viable alternative to the use of the traditional graveyard concept. There are plans for similar developments in Durban and Cape Town.
Schubert says South Africa is facing a shortage of approximately 7.5 million graves over the next 15 years at current mortality rates. Should HIV/AIDS play an escalating role in the country’s future (which according to the World Health Organisation analysis of sub-Saharan Africa already is), this figure will most likely exceed 10 million in the same period.
He says Ekurhuleni and eThekwini municipalities have both committed millions to a campaign to educate communities regarding the benefits of cremation as a viable and even preferred alternative to ground burials.
Currently, he says 59 of Durban’s 60 cemeteries are already full and believes it is reasonable to foresee a substantial increase in cremation in the coming years.
Asked if South Africans are embracing the idea of cremations, he says on average, particularly in the larger urban areas, the cremation rate has been increasing steadily for the past decade.
It has been partially as a reaction to the decline of cemeteries and also due to the fact that cremation is simply a better method altogether.
“This is most evident among white South Africans where cremation is moving towards the 80 percent mark.”
He says growing demographics of the Black urbanite is increasingly inclined to consider factors such as sustainable maintenance, security and dignity when making burial decisions. Because of this, he says, cremation is definitely a popular choice among this population group.
On the cost of cremations, he says it is always difficult to compare burial costs because funeral costs vary from as low as R10 000 to as high as R200 000.
To use a basic ground burial with a moderate headstone and grave trim as a benchmark, a cremation based funeral with a niche at Avalon Memoriam will cost approximately 30 percent less.
On global trends regarding cremation, he says statistics indicate that many Asian cultures support cremation exclusively while cremation is fast becoming the primary burial methods in the Western cultures.
Asked about the costs at the Bloemfontein Memoriam, Schubert says a niche is priced between R3 600 and R5 600 (depending on location). This amount includes the plaque, the niche and 50 year maintenance program that the Memoriam enjoys.
“Of the over 1000 niches sold at Bloemfontein Memoriam, almost 10 percent were sold to Blacks, who are doctors, lawyers, businessmen and educators.” – Denise Mhlanga
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
Print
