ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I: PRELIMINARY

Sections

1. Short title.

2. Interpretation.

PART II: BURIAL

3. No burial to take place without burial order in certain places.

4. Where no burial order is required.

5. Burial order issued by registrar.

6. Magistrate or Registrar-General of Births and Deaths to issue burial orders in other cases.

7. Medical practitioner to report certain deaths to magistrate.

8. Dumping of bodies and hindering of burial.

9. Burial by State in certain circumstances

10. Penalties.

11. Regulations.

PART III: CREMATION

12. Bodies to be burned in or at crematoria.

13. Cremation authority.

14. Crematoria to be approved by Minister.

15. Sites of crematoria.

16. Regulations.

17. Offences and penalties.

18. Fees.

19. Inquests and nuisances.

AN ACT to make provision for the burial of deceased persons and still-born children; to require medical practitioners to make reports in connection with certain deaths; to enable persons to establish crematoria and to provide for the regulation of the burning of human bodies; and to provide for other matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing.

PART I: PRELIMINARY (sections 1-2)

1. Short title

This Act may be cited as the Burial and Cremation Act.

2. Interpretation

In this Act-

'body' means the body of a deceased person or a still-born child and includes any part or remains of such body but does not include any part of the body of a deceased person removed from his body during his lifetime in the course of a surgical operation by a registered medical practitioner;

'burial'' means burial in earth, interment or any other form of sepulture of a body;

'burial order' means an order given under this Act authorizing the burial of a body;

'cremation authority' means a person authorized to be a cremation authority in terms of section eleven;

'crematorium' means any place, site, building or structure used for the burning of bodies and includes everything ancillary or incidental thereto;

'informant' means any person who is responsible for giving notice of a death or still-birth in terms of section 11, 20 or 22 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:02];

'Minister' means the Minister of Home Affairs or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;

'registered medical practitioner' means a person registered as a medical practitioner in terms of the Medical, Dental and Allied Professions Act [Chapter 27:08];

'registrar' means a person appointed as registrar, deputy registrar or assistant registrar in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:02];

'urban area' means any area-

(a) under the jurisdiction of a municipal council, town council or local board; or

(b) within a town ward of a rural district council; or

(c) which is from time to time declared by the Minister, by notice in a statutory instrument, to be an urban area for the purposes of this Act.

PART II: BURIAL (sections 3-11)

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8. Dumping of bodies and hindering of burial

(1) No person shall-

(a) leave or deposit a deceased person's body, or cause a deceased person's body to be left or deposited, in or on any land or premises occupied by another person; or

(b) by any wilful act or omission, hinder or prevent the burial of a deceased person's body;

for the purpose of inducing or compelling the payment of any money or property as damages or as marriage consideration in respect of the deceased person.

(2) If any person does or omits to do anything referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) and, at any time before that act or omission, he has demanded from any other person the payment of damages or marriage consideration in respect of the deceased person whose body is the subject of the act or omission, it shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that he did or omitted to do that thing for a purpose referred to in subsection (1).

(3) If a court convicting a person of an offence under subsection (1) is satisfied that, as a result of the offence, any money or property was paid to the convicted person by way of damages or marriage consideration, the court may order the convicted person to repay that money or property to the person who paid it to him.

(4) Subsection (2) of section 366 and sections 367 to 375 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in relation to any order under subsection (3) as if it had been made in terms of Part XIX of that Act.

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10. Penalties

Any person who contravenes any provision of this Part shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

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