If you die in Tshwane and your family fails to identify you within 28 days you will be burnt to ashes and thrown into the garden of remembrance, or share a grave with another corpse. The Tshwane council yesterday adopted the reviewed and amended by-laws for cemeteries and cremation, which state that any destitute person who dies in the jurisdiction of the municipality will be the responsibility of the municipality if not claimed in 28 days.ANC councillor Phumzile Hlatswayo argued that a cemetery was not just a place of burial but of spiritual and cultural reference.Because of this, she said, there was resistance by some communities to adopting alternative ways of disposing of the dead, such as sharing graves and cremation, among others.But the scarcity of land is proving to be a problem. Older cemeteries have run out of space and there is greater demand for burial land as a result of population growth.The by-law also states that, at the discretion of the cemetery administrator, more than one destitute deceased person can be buried in a grave.Where a poor person is deceased and accounted for the municipality will arrange for the cremation or burial, provided it can be proved that the deceased is poor.The stricter by-law also reduces the 25-year grave reservation to only 10 years.The person applying for the reserved grave must be a pensioner and cannot own the land, but must pay a reservation fee to the municipality and renew the 10-year reservation every five years.On proceedings at cremations, only 30-minute ceremonies at a crematorium or chapel will be allowed before the cremation...