No more burial space left at Old Location Cemetery – City of Windhoek
The City of Windhoek announced that the Old Location Cemetery will be closed for new burials because there is no more burial space left.
Head of Corporate Communications, Lydia Amutenya, said burials at this site will now only be permitted on reserved graves and for second interments in existing graves that were dug eight foot or 2.4 meters deep. There are currently 500 used graves to be used for second interments.
The Old Location Cemetery was established in 1928 to cater for the community of the Old Location and was utilised until 1968 when the last inhabitants of the Old Location were forcefully relocated to Katutura. In January 1995 the City of Windhoek applied to the then Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development to reopen the cemetery because of the high demand for burials by the community who resided in the area, whose ancestors were buried in the cemetery.
Based on this demand, and the status of the cemetery as a historic site, the ministry approved the application, which led to the expansion of the boundary of the cemetery, to accommodate more burial sites and to prolong the lifespan of the cemetery.
Since the extension of the boundary in 1995, 725 burials took place while more than 40 community members have reserved graves next to their loved ones and are currently paying reservation fees for those graves.
The burial rule for Old Location Cemetery was that one should be born on or before 1959, however, the City announced that this rule will not be applicable for a second burial in an existing 2.4 metre grave.
