The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a weather warning for the upcoming weekend, prompting the City of Cape Town to encourage weekday and expedited burials. This follows recent heavy rains and gale-force winds impacting the Western Cape.
The warning for disruptive rainfall this weekend coincides with one of the busiest days of the week for City cemeteries. With the soil already saturated, it will not take a lot of rain for flooding to occur, the City stated.
During the last severe weather event, the City's Recreation and Parks Department managed 117 burials on a Saturday. Despite ongoing efforts to promote more weekday burials, Saturdays remain the most popular choice.
Councillor Patricia van Der Ross, mayoral committee member for Community Services and Health, highlighted that adverse weather could impact grave depths.
Our cemeteries are incredibly busy on weekends, and this coming weekend will be no different. Our teams are on hand to ensure that operations proceed as smoothly as possible under the circumstances, but if the forecast holds, there will likely be an impact. Cape Town has experienced a lot of rainfall this month, so the soil remains very saturated.
