Sustainability and burial: South Africans will have to adapt traditional practices to fit modern realities

702's John Perlman is joined by Pepe Dass, chairperson of the South African Cemeteries Association.

The Mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, has called on Joburg residents to consider cremation as opposed to burial, as space for new cemeteries runs out.

Morero also made the suggestion that cemeteries be utilised for an additional, land-sparing purpose - to accommodate solar farms.

He was speaking at the national conference of the South African Cemeteries Association (SACA), in Johannesburg.

The event brings together municipal officials, cemetery and crematoria professionals, researchers, planners, and traditional leaders to reimagine burial practices in the context of urbanisation, climate change, and cultural heritage.

It's not just a question of space of course - the whole world should be moving towards sustainability at this point, comments SACA chairperson Pepe Dass.

"Our existence on this planet should be about sustainability, how to best use resources without bringing more damage. Understand that, every time we establish a cemetery just bec we want to keep a traditional practice in place, has a huge impact on the environment - your are basically destroying the biodiversity that exists on the ground besides impacting on things like groundwater sources..."

Pepe Dass, Chair - South African Cemeteries Association

"And when you look at the broader picture that everybody that lives is going to die, traditional burial practices of a body in a grave cannot be sustained for the living population."

Pepe Dass, Chair - South African Cemeteries Association

It's a question of adapting to the resources that we have and finding a compromise position when it comes to retaining cultural traditional value systems to meeting the challenges that limited resources are posing.

The role of the Association is to promote this conversation around a very sensitive topic so that people understand the challenges in order to adapt and to change, Dass says.

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article