Newly upgraded cemetery in Palmiet

Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dudley Coetzee, officially opened the Palmiet Cemetery in the Hangklip-Kleinmond area on Monday, 15 March. The cemetery will accommodate 820 new burial sites which will provide burial capacity for approximately the next eight years, based on the current rate of burials in the Kleinmond area.

In keeping with Covid-19 guidelines, the ribbon cutting ceremony was not open to the public. A few special guests, integral to the development of the cemetery, were present to celebrate the special occasion.

Ward 10 Councillor, Fanie Krige, delivered a heart-warming welcome and paid tribute to the late Mike Bartman, who played a major role in the realisation of this cemetery. His research led to the reopening of the former graveyard site at Palmiet, which was closed in 1999 after it became impossible to continue with burials due to the high-water table in the area.

“I remember many evenings where we met with the Proteadorp community in particular, to consider the different options available to us,” Cllr Krige said. The solution to the problem was to install a sub-soil drainage system with a berm and outlet structures for the subsoil system.

Krige expressed the hope that the cemetery will be able to provide a good backdrop for quiet reflection and serve as place of serenity, where one can collect one’s thoughts.

In his keynote speech, Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dudley Coetzee, also gave credit to the former Executive Mayor, the late Rudolph Smith, who agreed in 2017 to respond to the public outcry in Kleinmond to seek a local graveyard solution.

The Mayor reminded attendees about the challenges Kleinmond experienced with burial sites since the only cemetery in Main Road reached its full capacity in 2009 and the local communities had to bury loved ones elsewhere in the Overstrand.

Click on the newspaper below to read more (see page 15).