The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a weather warning for the upcoming weekend, prompting the City of Cape Town to encourage weekday and expedited burials. This follows recent heavy rains and gale-force winds impacting the Western Cape.
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‘The warning for disruptive rainfall this weekend coincides with one of the busiest days of the week for City cemeteries. With the soil already saturated, it will not take a lot of rain for flooding to occur,’ the City stated.
During the last severe weather event, the City’s Recreation and Parks Department managed 117 burials on a Saturday. Despite ongoing efforts to promote more weekday burials, Saturdays remain the most popular choice.
Councillor Patricia van Der Ross, mayoral committee member for Community Services and Health, highlighted that adverse weather could impact grave depths.
‘Our cemeteries are incredibly busy on weekends, and this coming weekend will be no different. Our teams are on hand to ensure that operations proceed as smoothly as possible under the circumstances, but if the forecast holds, there will likely be an impact. Cape Town has experienced a lot of rainfall this month, so the soil remains very saturated.’
She added, ‘As we’ve indicated before, this could affect grave depths or reopening of existing graves for second burials, resulting in delays or even forcing the use of an alternate grave. I also want to call on funeral-goers to please try and expedite burials, so that we can manage traffic in and out of the cemeteries but also limit people’s exposure to conditions underfoot.’
The City has issued the following advice for cemetery visitors during bad weather:
- Roads, pathways and parking lots could be flooded or slippery, so caution is advised.
- Wear weatherproof clothing and waterproof, non-slip shoes to avoid slipping and puddles.
- Arrive on time and adhere to the 30-minute time slot to ease parking congestion.
- Limit the number of attendees at burials during poor weather.
- Exercise caution when carrying coffins and avoid standing close to open graves.
- Undertakers should be careful when using gazebos in windy conditions.
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Picture: Maitland Cemetery / Facebook