South Africa modernizes burial services with new digital platform
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The South African Local Government Association (Salga) and Emfuleni Municipality launched a Digital Cemetery Management Platform to address issues with land shortages, vandalism, and outdated systems in cemetery management.
South Africa faces a crisis in its cemeteries due to a lack of space, damage to property, and insufficient care from local governments. To cope with these problems, municipalities are exploring options like reusing graves, building upwards, and increasing cremations, now also including digital solutions.
The new platform, which went live on September 14, 2026, will allow residents, funeral homes, and burial societies in Emfuleni to apply for burial services online, submit necessary paperwork, and monitor the status of their requests. A mobile app is available for Android devices, aiming to decrease the need for people to visit municipal offices in person.
Salga plans to use the Emfuleni launch as a test case to improve the system and potentially expand it to other municipalities across South Africa. The platform will digitize records, streamline grave allocation, and ensure compliance with data privacy laws, while also creating a base for future data analysis and automation.
