Cremation offers a number of benefits for cities like Cape Town where cemetery space is in short supply. Not only is it affordable, but it also helps alleviate the on-going challenge around lack of burial space.

A cremation furnace is designed to take one body per coffin at a time. High temperatures and vaporisation reduce the body gases and bone fragments. These cremated remains are extracted separately to ensure that the bereaved receives ashes that are unique to the deceased.

Disposal of ashes

While the scattering of ashes is not harmful to the environment, the City requests that people take care when sprinkling ashes in public spaces, for example, in the sea or in a botanical garden, to ensure that other people in the area are not affected.

The City has capacity for tastefully designed niche walls and niche boxes at selected cemeteries, where urns containing ashes may be buried behind a commemorative plaque.