Bury your loved ones in the week, the City of Cape Town recently urged people. According to a statement released by the City 70% of funerals take place on Saturdays resulting in traffic congestion and overcrowding of cemeteries.

Lack of space
Of the city’s 40 cemeteries only 20 are fully operational; the remaining 20 are described as “either full or dormant” which means that they can only accommodate second burials or family burials. Atlantis Cemetery is an exception to the rule. Only 15 hectares of the cemetery’s 72 hectares have been developed so far. Recent upgrades have included the expansion of the parking area inside the cemetery, the addition of an exit gate further up from the main gate, and the creation of four additional burial blocks.

Distance counts in this cemetery’s favor
Brice ascribes the availability of burial plots at this cemetery to its distance (44 km) from Cape Town. People from the new and informal housing areas north of Parklands are however starting to make use of Atlantis cemetery; so do the occasional families from Pella, Malmesbury, Saldanha, Vredenburg and Veldrift.

Get used to burying your loved ones further from home
The situation will not improve in the near future. Land set aside for cemetery development near Richwood and Edgemead was subject to a land claim. Brice says that Capetonians will have to get used to burying their loved ones further from home due to the shortage of cemeteries.