The Anglican Diocese of Cape Town is inviting family members to make contact with them because they want to rebury the remains of the dead at another place, reports the Cape Argus.
The remains of about 2 500 people are buried in the cemetery, and are set to be exhumed and reburied in a columbarium — a storage for the remains alongside St Mark’s Church in Athlone.
The cemetery, near Garlandale Secondary School, was first used as a church burial ground in 1867, while the last recorded burial took place in 1946.
The church held public meetings under the auspices of the National Heritage Resources Act in 2012 and 2013 to consult the community on what to do.
The meeting resolved that the remains should be exhumed, cremated and interred in the columbarium, where the names of those buried will be memorialised.
Mary Patrick, the archaeologist who is advising the church, said excavation is expected to start next week.
Bishop Garth Counsell, the Bishop of Table Bay, said over time people stopped visiting the begraafplaas and now hardly anyone goes there.
The Athlone community voted in favour of housing. Relatives of those buried in the cemetery can consult the burial
records by emailing details to David Bailey at the Diocese of Cape Town at [email protected].