The Hamberg cemetery, a forgotten graveyard in Roodepoort that dates from just after the birth of Johannesburg, is to be reopened for burials from this Thursday.
With space in Westpark Cemetery on Beyers Naudé Drive running out by August, and suitable vacant land in Johannesburg scarce, the city is investigating the possibility of reopening other old cemeteries.
Of the 42 cemeteries operated by Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo (JCPZ), 38 have run out of space.
The 0.65ha Hamberg cemetery, with just 50 known graves, can accommodate between 1,500 and 2,000 more. The earliest grave in the cemetery is dated 1889, the year after it was established. Johannesburg itself was formally founded in 1886.
Unmarked graves can be found using ground-penetrating radar.
Johannesburg deputy director of arts & culture, Eric Itzkin, said the cemetery’s inception coincided with the influx of people during the gold rush.
The municipality of Roodepoort provided cemeteries for its residents, with Hamberg cemetery being among the first, followed by Maraisburg in 1893 and Old Roodepoort in 1895.
Other cemeteries were established during the gold rush on 12 stands between Bree, Diagonal and Harrison streets.
Because the 1886 gold rush was expected to rapidly peter out and leave Johannesburg a ghost town, municipal authorities did not establish permanent cemeteries, said Itzkin.
But as the town expanded the authorities changed course and bought the site that now houses Braamfontein cemetery.
Sarah Welham, founder of the friends of cemeteries group at the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, said: “Of the men buried at Hamberg, it would appear they were farmers or worked on the mines, but there are also several young children buried there. It was a very much a working-class neighbourhood.”
JCPZ spokesperson Jenny Moodley said: “We are fast running out of space, and we are encouraging the public to look at alternate burial methods.”
Options included having two or even three family members share the same grave and the exhumation of remains to transfer them to a smaller coffin that would be reburied but would occupy less space.
“There is increasing competition for available land as potential burial space can be used for housing, the building of schools and businesses. Factors contributing to insufficient burial land are the increasing numbers in the population, relatively high death rates in the city as well as limited financial resources and land,” Moodley said.
In January, JCPZ announced a limit of 15 burials a week at Westpark Cemetery.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.