LOBATSE TOWN COUNCIL (CEMETERY) BYE-LAWS
(under regulations 34 and 35)
(29th September, 1978)
ARRANGEMENT OF BYE-LAWS
BYE-LAWS
1. Citation
2. Interpretation
3. Establishment
4. Burials outside cemetery
5. Burials without permit
6. Application for burial permits
7. Fees
8. Dimensions of graves
9. Body to be buried in coffin
10. Coffin to be covered
11. Graves to be numbered and burials registered
12. Restriction on erection of memorial work on graves
13. Exhumations
14. Restriction of number of bodies in one grave
15. Hours of opening of cemeteries
16. Closing of cemeteries
17. Exercise of control of cemeteries by caretakers
18. Offences within cemeteries
19. Penalties
First Schedule – Areas Established as Cemeteries
Second Schedule – Burial Permit
Third Schedule – Burial Fees
Fourth Schedule – Grave Dimensions
S.I. 104, 1978.
These Bye-laws may be cited as the Lobatse Town Council (Cemetery) Bye-laws*.
*Originally made under the Township Act now repealed, these regulations have been continued under s 94(2) of the Local Government Act, 2013.
In these Bye-laws
“the caretaker” means the person designated by the Town Council as the caretaker of a particular cemetery;
“cemetery” means an area established as a cemetery by bye-law 3;
“child” means a person under 10 years of age;
“memorial work” means any gravestone, monument, cenotaph, tablet or monumental inscription and any work ancillary thereto;
“Town Clerk” means the Town Clerk of the Lobatse Town Council;
“Town Council” means the Lobatse Town Council.
Each of the areas specified in the First Schedule is hereby established as a cemetery.
No person shall bury or cause to be buried a body in any place other than in a cemetery.
(1) No person shall bury or cause to be buried a body in a cemetery unless a permit for the burial of that body has been issued by the Town Clerk or the caretaker of the cemetery.
(2) Every burial permit issued under this bye-law shall be in the form set out in the Second Schedule.
6. Application for burial permits
Every application for a burial permit to be issued under bye-law 5 shall be in the form set out in the Second Schedule and shall be accompanied by
(a) a death certificate signed by a medical practitioner or a copy thereof certified to be a true copy by an administrative officer or other responsible person; or
(b) by the written sanction of a magistrate or administrative officer authorising the burial.
(1) Subject to this bye-law, a fee shall be paid for every burial permit issued under bye-law 5 before the permit is issued.
(2) The fee to be paid for a burial permit issued under bye-law 5 shall be as specified in the Third Schedule.
(3) Where the Town Clerk is satisfied that any fee payable under this bye-law cannot, by reason of poverty, be paid, he may
(a) remit the fee either wholly or in part;
(b) direct that the fee, or so much of the fee as he has not remitted under sub-bye-law (a), shall be paid by instalments of such amounts and at such times as he shall specify.
Except where the Town Clerk otherwise directs, no person shall bury or cause to be buried a body in a cemetery unless the grave has the dimensions specified in the Fourth Schedule.
9. Body to be buried in coffin
Except where the Town Clerk otherwise directs, no person shall bury or cause to be buried a body in a cemetery unless the body is enclosed in a coffin of solid and sound construction:
Provided that this bye-law shall not apply in the case of the burial of a Muslim.
The caretaker of the cemetery in which a body is buried shall ensure that as soon as the coffin or body is placed in a grave it is covered with earth until the grave is filled.
11. Graves to be numbered and burials registered
(1) Every grave in a cemetery shall be allocated a number and the particulars of every burial shall be recorded in a register kept by the Town Clerk.
(2) The register referred to in sub-bye-law (1) may be inspected by members of the public during ordinary office hours.
12. Restriction on erection of memorial work on graves
(1) No person shall erect on any grave any memorial work unless the written permission of the Town Clerk has been granted therefor and the erection is carried out in accordance with that permission.
(2) A person making application to the Town Clerk for his permission to erect any memorial work on a grave shall, if the Town Clerk requires him to do so, furnish the Town Clerk with plans or diagrams thereof in such degree of detail as to the manner in which the work is to be executed as the Town Clerk may require.
(3) The Town Clerk may refuse to grant permission for the erection of any memorial work on a grave if he is of the opinion that the memorial work would be unsightly or offensive or if it would not be of a permanent and durable nature; but any person aggrieved by such a refusal to grant permission may appeal to the Town Council whose decision shall be final.
(4) The Town Council may take down and remove any memorial work erected on a grave without the permission of the Town Clerk or of the Town Council granted on appeal under this bye-law or which is not maintained in an adequate state of repair and may recover from the person who erected the memorial work the cost of so doing.
Subject to the Inquests Act, no person shall exhume or cause to be exhumed a body within a cemetery or reopen any grave except with the written permission of the Town Council.
14. Restriction of number of bodies in one grave
No person shall bury or cause to be buried in a cemetery more than one body of a person who is not a child or more than two bodies of children in one grave unless the written permission of the Town Clerk has been granted therefor:
Provided that the body of a still-born child may be buried with the body of its mother in one grave without permission therefor being granted under this bye-law.
15. Hours of opening of cemeteries
Every cemetery shall be open to the public between sunrise and sunset:
Provided that
(i) the Town Clerk or the caretaker of the cemetery may from time to time authorise an earlier opening or a later closing of the cemetery;
(ii) nothing in this bye-law shall authorise members of the public to enter any building or enclosed space within the cemetery; and
(iii) children, unless accompanied by a responsible adult, may be excluded from the cemetery.
The Town Council may close any cemetery; but any cemetery so closed shall remain a cemetery except that no person shall bury or cause to be buried a body therein except with the written permission of the Town Council.
17. Exercise of control of cemeteries by caretakers
(1) Every person within a cemetery shall be subject to the directions and control of the caretaker of the cemetery.
(2) A caretaker of a cemetery may give such reasonable directions as he thinks fit for the arrangement of funerals or of a particular funeral.
(3) No person shall resist or obstruct the caretaker of a cemetery in the performance of his functions or disobey any lawful directions given by the caretaker.
18. Offences within cemeteries
No person shall
(a) enter or remain in any cemetery other than when the cemetery is open to the public in accordance with bye-law 15;
(b) destroy, injure or damage any building, wall, fence, tree or plant within a cemetery;
(c) put up any bill in a cemetery or on any wall or fence thereof;
(d) destroy, injure or damage any memorial work within a cemetery;
(e) play any game or sport in a cemetery;
(f) discharge a firearm in a cemetery, unless he is lawfully ordered to do so as part of a military funeral;
(g) disturb or annoy any person attending a funeral in a cemetery;
(h) shout, scream or behave in a disorderly, indecent, immodest or irreverent manner in or immediately adjacent to a cemetery;
(i) enter a cemetery which is enclosed by a fence or wall other than through a gate or door; or
(j) permit or allow any dog or livestock to enter or remain in any cemetery.
Any person who contravenes these Bye-laws shall be liable to a fine not exceeding P15 or in default of payment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two months.
FIRST SCHEDULE
AREAS ESTABLISHED AS CEMETERIES
(bye-law 3)
Fenced areas east of Lobatse Township centre used as a cemetery
SECOND SCHEDULE
BURIAL PERMITS
(bye-laws 5 and 6)
PART I
Application for Burial Permit/
Kopo Ya Tetlelelo Ya Phitlho
|
LOBATSE TOWN COUNCIL Applicant’s full name Block letters/Ditlhaka tse ditona Applicant’s address Name of deceased Address of deceased Sex of deceased Age of deceased Religious denomination of deceased * Date of death Place of death Death certificate (place and date of issue and name of issuing person) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I certify that the information given above is true in every respect. ………………………………………… |
>*The question need not be answered.
**Potso e gae patelesege go arabiwa.
PART II
|
For Official Use Only |
|
|
Fee Grave number |
Official Receipt No. |
PART III
Burial Permit
|
Tetlelelo ya Phitlho …………………………………………………………. |
|
|
|
Date Letsatsi ………………………………….. |
THIRD SCHEDULE
BURIAL FEES
(bye-law 7)
|
Persons other than children |
P6 per grave |
|
Children |
P4 per grave |
FOURTH SCHEDULE
GRAVE DIMENSIONS
(bye-law 8)
|
Grave of person other than child- |
|
|
length |
2,128 m |
|
width |
0,912 m |
|
depth |
1,824 m |
|
Grave of child- |
|
|
length |
1,524 m |
|
width |
0,912 m |
|
depth |
1,524 m |
|
Grave of two children- |
|
|
length |
1,524 m |
|
width |
1,218 m |
|
depth |
1,524 m |