Cemeteries Act (Chapter 5:04)
Zimbabwe
Cemeteries Act
Chapter 5:04
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Commenced on 10 June 1891
- [This is the version of this document at 31 December 2016 and includes any amendments published up to 31 December 2017.]
- [Note: This version of the Act was revised and consolidated by the Law Development Commission of Zimbabwe]
This Act may be cited as the Cemeteries Act [Chapter 5:04]. In this Act—“cemetery” means a public cemetery;“local authority” means a municipal council, town council or rural district council;“Minister” means the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;“trustee” means a person appointed as trustee in terms of section three. The Minister may appoint trustees, being not fewer than three and not more than seven, for the management of any cemetery, and every such appointment shall be notified in the Gazette. The Minister may remove any trustee and upon the removal, death or resignation of any trustee, appoint another in his place. The trustees shall have power to acquire, hold and alienate land for the purposes of this Act, and may raise money on mortgage of any land so held. The legal estate in all lands held by the trustees in trust for the purposes of this Act shall vest in the trustees for the time being, and the production of the Gazette containing a notice of the appointment of any trustee, accompanied by a solemn declaration that such trustee then holds office, shall be sufficient proof of the appointment and capacity of such trustee. Grants of land for the establishment or extension of any cemetery under this Act may be made—(a)in the case of State land, by the President;(b)in the case of land vested in—(i)a municipality or town, by the council thereof proceeding in accordance with section 152 of the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15];(ii)a rural district council, by the council proceeding in accordance with paragraph 1 of the First Schedule to the Rural District Councils Act [Chapter 29:13]. A local authority may make grants-in-aid for the establishment or the maintenance of any cemetery established under this Act. The trustees shall have power to do all or any of the following things—(a)to enclose any land held in trust for the purposes of this Act with proper and sufficient walls, rails or fences;(b)to erect suitable gates or entrances;(c)to lay out and ornament the cemetery in such manner as is most suitable and convenient for the burial of the dead;(d)to embellish the cemetery with walks, avenues, roads, trees and shrubs;(e)to preserve, maintain and keep in a clean and orderly state and condition and to cause to be so maintained and kept the whole of the cemetery and its walls and fences and all monuments, tombstones, enclosures, buildings, erections, walks, trees and shrubs therein;(f)to sell, under such conditions and restrictions as they think proper, the exclusive right of burial or of constructing vaults with the exclusive right of burial therein either in perpetuity or for a limited period, in such parts of the cemetery as may be appropriated for that purpose;(g)to fix a scale of fees payable for any burial plot and on any vault or grave being dug or made and on any monument or tombstone being erected or placed in any part of the cemetery;(h)to permit any grave to be dug or made in the cemetery and any monument or tombstone to be erected or placed in any part of the cemetery as they may think fit, upon payment to them of the fees fixed in the scale of fees;(i)to define the positions of all graves and vaults permitted to be made in the cemetery, the depth of the graves and construction of coffins to be admitted into vaults, and the covering of vaults so as to prevent the escape of noxious exhalations;(j)to protect the buildings, monuments, tombs, shrubberies, plantations and enclosures therein and thereof from disturbance or damage;(k)to make such arrangements as they think fit for conveying, or for regulating and facilitating the conveyance, of the bodies of the dead from the place of death to any cemetery;(l)to do and perform or cause to be done and performed all such acts, matters and things as may be necessary and proper for any of the purposes of this Act. Every vault shall be so constructed that no portion thereof shall be above the level of the earth immediately adjoining or surrounding the said vault. The trustees shall cause to be set apart a portion of the cemetery for the burial of poor persons free of charge and shall cause to be buried therein the body of any poor person upon production of an order for that purpose from the district administrator. If the number of trustees appointed is three, the powers conferred by this Act may be executed by any two of them, and if the number is four or more, such powers may be executed by any three of them. The majority of the votes of the members present at any meeting of trustees shall determine all questions which may be discussed or considered at such meeting. When any person desires to erect and place any monument or tombstone in any part of any cemetery he shall, before permission is given, submit a plan of the monument or tombstone proposed to be erected and placed to the trustees of the cemetery, who may withhold their permission and prevent the erection of any monument which appears to them to be inappropriate or unbecoming. The trustees shall fix and determine the position of any monument which may be proposed to be erected according to the description, size and character thereof, having reference to the general plan for ornamenting the cemetery in an appropriate manner. If any monument, tomb or other erection has been built or erected contrary to the terms and conditions upon which permission to erect or construct the same was granted, or if such terms and conditions or the regulations of the cemetery have not been complied with, the trustees may cause such monument, tomb or other erection to be taken down and removed. Before any body is permitted to be interred in any vault or in any place of burial, the exclusive right to which for burial purposes has been granted, sold or let by the trustees as a family or private burial place, the trustees or any employee of theirs may require satisfactory proof that the person for the time being entitled as owner to the exclusive right of burial in such vault or other place has consented or would not object to such interment taking place therein. Any person digging or making any vault, grave or tombstone or erecting or placing any monument in any cemetery by and with the permission of the trustees, upon payment of the prescribed fees, shall, subject to the terms and conditions of that permission, be entitled to maintain and keep up or to have maintained and kept up, as the case may be, that vault, grave, monument or tombstone for the sole and separate use of such person and his representatives for ever or for such time as by those terms and conditions may be stipulated. When the members of any religious denomination desire at their own expense to build in any cemetery a suitable mortuary, church or chapel for the performance of the rites and ceremonies in the burial of the dead according to the usages of such denomination, if the plans, specification, elevations and models thereof, and other buildings and conveniences thereto, are first submitted to and approved by the trustees, the trustees may permit the same to be erected and built within such part of the cemetery as may be set apart for such denomination upon such terms as may be agreed upon. The minister of any denomination for which any portion of any cemetery is specially set apart may have access and admission to such portion at all times as he sees fit, subject to any rules made by the trustees, and any such minister may freely exercise his spiritual functions therein without hindrance or disturbance of the trustees or any other person:Provided that it shall not be competent for the trustees by any rule or by any act, matter or thing to interfere directly or indirectly with the orderly performance of any religious ceremony in the burial of the dead according to the usage or practice of the communion to which the deceased may have belonged. Every trustee who omits to keep the account required by section twenty-three and to send such abstract thereof to the Secretary as is referred to in section twenty-three and every trustee who fails to produce the books, accounts and vouchers in obedience to any order made by the Minister in terms of subsection (3) of section twenty-three, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level three or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month or to both such fine and such imprisonment.[section as amended by section 4 of act 22 of 2001] All burials within any cemetery shall be registered in a book to be provided by the trustees and kept for that purpose—(a)which shall be in such form as may be prescribed by regulation; and(b)which shall be regularly kept by some person appointed by the trustees to do that duty; and(c)in which shall be distinguished in what parts of the cemetery the several bodies, the burials of which are entered therein, are buried. Any person who wantonly or wilfully destroys or does or causes to be done any damage, defacement or disfigurement to any monument, vault, tombstone or grave, whether within or without a cemetery, or to any building, erection, railing, fence, tree, shrub, plant, thing or natural object, adjoining, connected with or relating to any such monument, vault, tombstone or grave, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level five or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.[section as amended by section 4 of act 22 of 2001] Any person who does or causes to be done any injury to any monument, vault, tombstone, building, erection, railing, shrub, tree or plant in or belonging to any cemetery, or any other damage to any such cemetery, whether the same is done wilfully or wantonly or otherwise, shall be liable, irrespective of any such penalty referred to in section twenty-six, to pay a reasonable sum of money as damages or for compensation, which sum of money shall be recoverable in any court of competent jurisdiction by the trustees or by any person injured by such damage, but not by both the trustees and that person in respect of the same act or offence. Any animal found trespassing in any cemetery may be impounded by the trustees, or by any employee of theirs, and the owner of any animal so impounded shall be liable to pay, in lieu of any other trespass money, such sum not exceeding the amount of a fine of level one in respect of each animal so found as may be prescribed by rules in terms of section twelve, exclusive of driving distance, herding or other pound fees payable according to any other Act.[section as amended by section 4 of act 22 of 2001] Any trustee or any employee of the trustees or any person called to aid or assist any such trustee or employee may, without warrant, take into custody any person who commits or is in the act of committing any offence against this Act or any offence mentioned in section 3 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act [Chapter 9:15] in any cemetery and whose name and place of abode are not known to the person so arresting, and the person arrested may be detained until he can be delivered into the custody of a police officer, to be dealt with according to law. All moneys arising from fines and penalties imposed by this Act shall, when recovered, be paid to the trustees of the cemetery in respect whereof such fine or penalty has been imposed.1. Short title
2. Interpretation
3. Trustees
4. Removal of trustees
5. Trustees may hold and mortgage land
6. Vesting land in trustees
7. Grants of land may be made
8. Local authorities may grant money
9. Powers of trustees
10. Restrictions as to vaults
11. Provision for burial of the poor
12. Trustees may make rules
13. Quorum of trustees
14. Majority to decide questions
15. Chairman
16. Monuments and tombstones
17. Position of monuments and tombstones
18. Removal of monuments and tombstones
19. Burials in places where the exclusive right has been acquired by individuals
20. Right to keep up and maintain tombstones
21. How chapels may be erected
22. Ministers’ right of access to chapels
23. Accounts to be kept
24. Penalty for not keeping accounts
25. Registration
26. Destruction, damage or defacement of monuments prohibited
27. Damages for injuries not wilful
28. Animals found trespassing may be impounded
29. Cemeteries to be deemed “public places”
30. Trustees and employees may arrest persons contravening this Act
31. Fines and penalties to go to trustees
32. Local authority may establish or take over cemetery
33. Local authority deemed trustees
34. Penalty
35. Consent to establish cemetery
36. Minister may issue closing order
37. Burial in vaults
38. Upkeep and closure of cemeteries, and removal of human remains