Johannesburg city officials said today that AIDS and the growth of urban migration have made it necessary to find new cemeteries and encourage "second burial," or putting several family members' bodies in the same grave in order to save space. Alexandra Township has no spare gravesites, and Soweto's Avalon cemetery has more than 200 burials each weekend, said Jenny Moodley, spokesperson for Johannesburg City Parks (JCP), which is also responsible for municipal graveyards.

"There's a lot of pressure on the current infrastructure," said Moodley. "For each hectare, we can only do 2,000 primary burials. If residents were willing to have second burials then we'd have an additional 1.5 million burial spaces across the city," she said. "A lot of people are saying we should cremate because in the future we don't want to have to pay large amounts in tax for the upkeep of cemetery space." However, many people with traditional beliefs are opposed to cremation.

Each weekend, bus convoys carrying mourners bring townships to a standstill as families bury their dead. Two new cemeteries on the city's outskirts will almost double Johannesburg's burial capacity, said Moodley, creating nearly half a million plots. JCP estimates there will be a 5-10 percent increase in deaths each year. Moodley attributed the space problem to urbanization, adding that JCP does not have good data on causes of death.

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