Housing, cemeteries compete for land
IT COULD take 50 years to resolve eThekwini Municipality’s housing problems, said Krish Kumar, the deputy city manager of finance, yesterday.
He was speaking at the Pan African and Crematoria Conference at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre.
Kumar was discussing the allocation of municipal resources to resolve the lack of land for cemeteries issue.
“The housing backlog will take 50 years to eradicate at the current rate, so it is a major issue for us,” Kumar said.
The housing backlog stands at more than 450 000 units.
He said the city was trying to balance its various needs.
Personally, Kumar said if the city continued to prioritise housing and economic development, getting large tracts of land for cemeteries would be less of a priority.
This comes as Durban’s cemeteries are nearly at capacity, with Chesterville already closed to new burials. The cem- etery is the final resting place for more than 80 000 people.
Without naming specific cemeteries, Kumar said some were not well maintained while others were in immaculate condition.
“If a municipality cannot maintain a cemetery, then that municipality is in dire financial straits,“Kumar said.
He added it was very important that cemeteries were well taken care of.
He said the apartheid regime was able to find land for cemeteries and the city needed to establish how this was achieved.
Kumar felt there was a need for public-private partnerships. He said the city could look at how various religious organisations ran their cemeteries and learn from them.
He said they wanted communities to be able to take care of their own cemeteries. “If the communities did this, then tariffs for graves and their maintenance would not be an issue as the community would be looking after the graves themselves.”
Looking at alternative methods of burial was also important, Kumar said.
Cremation was one of the alternatives, but he said there were problems.
“It is very embarrassing for us as the city of Durban, and I don’t say this lightly, when we have a crematorium and we can’t replace the incinerators. It’s gone on for three years.”
Kumar said the company that was supposed to do the work had let them down.
He felt that ensuring there were proper processes followed was also important “as death is an emotional issue”.
Other city priorities included water, sanitation and electricity. Kumar said the city had backlogs of R53.1 billion which was 10 times its capital budget.
“We would have to double our capital budget for the next 10 years if we have to clear these backlogs.”
He said 93% of Durban’s population had access to water, 81% had access to sanitation and 70% to electricity. Postapartheid, this was very good, he said. “But this was not the biggest challenge.”
He expected that by 2030, 70% of Durban’s population would be living in urban areas. This was why land management was a vital issue and he questioned whether the city could afford to allocate more land to cemeteries.
Kumar said there was enough money, but a compelling argument needed to be made for it to be allocated.