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THE search for the burial sites of family and friends has been made
easier by City Parks: it has launched an online database of cemeteries
in Johannesburg.
And soon City Parks hopes to have captured data that goes back
as far as the 1880s, when the first person in Johannesburg was buried.
Brixton cemetery
About 18 months ago, City Parks introduced an electronic-payment
option in cemeteries - a safer and more convenient way of handling
finances.
When cemeteries and crematoria assessed requests from families for
information about the deceased, City Parks decided to extend the
electronic system: from being a purely financial tool, it would now be
used as a database of general information.
"This system is user-friendly for the management of information as well
as for limited access for family members to search for their deceased,"
says Alan Buff, the general manager of technical support and training
for City Parks.
It is hoped that, when the system is running and all the data
has been captured, it will be possible to search for funeral and burial
information within an hour of the burial.
The database will go a long way in capturing and analysing information
for statistics. There is information about the gender, race and age of
the deceased - as well as about ratios of burial to cremation and
natural to unnatural death. Death and burial trends are also recorded.
"There are over 78 000 different reports that can be done," says Buff.
Cracking down on illegal undertakers is something else that should
follow. The undertaker involved needs to provide details - as well as
proof of his competency and a certificate of compliance. If this cannot
be provided, then it is obvious "that he is practising illegally", says
Buff.
"Cemeteries are a part of our heritage and they are also the green parts of our cities," he says.
The information database should also interest tourists who may want to visit the graves of famous people in Johannesburg.
The first cemetery in Johannesburg was laid out in 1886 on the corner
of Bree and Harrison streets; the first person buried in town was Mary
Dearlove, who died on 29 March 1887, at the age of 45.
Braamfontein Cemetery
This cemetery became overrun as the town grew briskly. Land was
acquired in Braamfontein for the Braamfontein Cemetery, which had its
first burials in 1888. The bodies from the city cemetery were exhumed
and re-buried in Braamfontein in the 1890s.
The City of Johannesburg now comprises 11 former cities and towns, 33 cemeteries and two crematoria.
The largest of the cemeteries is the 172-hectare Avalon Cemetery in
Soweto. This cemetery was opened in 1972 and holds the remains of many
heroes of the struggle against apartheid, including: Joe Slovo, the
general secretary of South African Communist Party and former
chief-of-staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, and women's leaders Lilian Ngoyi
and Helen Joseph.
Alfred Nzo, democratic South Africa's first minister of foreign
affairs, Joe Modise, the first minister of defence in post-apartheid
South Africa, and Nkosi Johnson, the young Aids activist, are buried in
Westpark Cemetery.
Enoch Sontonga, who composed the South African anthem, 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica', is buried in the Braamfontein Cemetery.
For more about the heritage routes of Johannesburg's cemeteries, or to search for the name of a deceased, go to the Johannesburg City Parks website.
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