Online Reporter
Sikhumbuzo Moyo
Bulawayo City Council has allocated an additional 54 hectares of land for its Luveve Cemetery expansion drive, with the new space set to accommodate 100,000 graves.
This comes against the backdrop of the city running out of burial space, with the local authority now relying solely on Luveve Extension and Umvutsha cemeteries for burials.
According to the council’s latest weekly newsletter, MasiyePhambili, the Director of Town Planning, Mr Wisdom Siziba, stated that the proposed new cemetery was covered in the City’s Master Plan.
“The Town Planning Department provided for these sites in terms of the Master Plan. A site had been identified to the north and opposite the existing Luveve Cemetery Extension 1, stretched southwards from the parking lot up to the existing crematorium, running along between the railway line reserve and the existing road leading to the Municipality Booster Station,” said Mr Siziba.
Mr Siziba, as reported by the newsletter, said the land was owned by the City of Bulawayo and is expected to provide 100,000 graves.
He said that in allocating cemetery land, Council was fulfilling its mandate as the existing cemeteries were running out of burial space, with Luveve and Umvutsha cemeteries being depleted at a fast rate. As such, there was a need to open up new cemetery sites to cater for the growing demand for burial space, taking into consideration the fact that the preferred method of disposal of the dead remained burials, as cremation was not popular.
Mr Siziba said there would be a need for Council to construct approximately 2km of access road leading to the cemetery extension.
“Access to the proposed cemetery site from the city centre was through Luveve Road and right onto Intemba Road, then left onto Gwabalanda Drive, all the way past the old cemetery, then past the crematorium where it began going north opposite the current Luveve Cemetery Extension and gum plantation. These roads, especially Gwabalanda Drive, needed rehabilitation and upgrading to be brought up to a standard that could carry increased volumes of traffic. The current link from the old Luveve Cemetery to the site was through an unformed road. There was a need to construct a proper road on this portion, which had a distance of approximately 1.96km,” he said.
The Town Planning Director said consultations had been held with various Council departments who supported the establishment of the new cemetery. A full Council sitting on 3 September adopted that the piece of land measuring 54 hectares, known as Stand 10365 Luveve, be approved as a cemetery site.
The Council resolved that the land be handed over to the Health Services Department so that the site would be gazetted as a cemetery, enabling its use for such purposes. Accordingly, the Health Services Department was directed to ensure that a prospectus was submitted to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), as per EMA requirements, reports the newsletter.
