#ICYMI: EFF demands Provincial government to abolish burial fees

The EFF party demanded the Joburg City Council and Gauteng Provincial government to abolish the burial fees for poor families.

This includes fees charged for after-hours services and called for unconditional assistance with the burial of those in child-headed families and pensioners. The demands were made in a statement to the Gauteng Premier David Makhura, MEC for Health Gwendoline Ramogkopa and Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba. This the party said, is prompted by the many deaths in the city which it attributed to poor healthcare, negligence by healthcare practitioners, crime and diseases caused by poor delivery of basic services like housing, water and sanitation. “Despite the high mortality rates and high levels of unemployment and poverty, the City charges poor citizens R1 390 per grave for adults and R699 for children. “We can no longer fold our arms and watch poor people struggle with fees and charges for the mortuary, transport, accessing a grave and for groceries when burying their loved ones on the land which belongs to them. “This, in a city of about 5 million residents, 77 per cent of who are black.”

It cited deaths from maternal mortality as 134 per 100 000 live births countrywide, 3 577 under 5s in Gauteng dying in public health facilities, 13 per cent of Gauteng residents as living with HIV and 4 023 murders recorded in 2017 in the province.

It linked this to the bleak economy causing 32 per cent unemployment in youth in Joburg, employment of only 48 per cent for Soweto residents, 50 per cent in Orange Farm, 64 per cent in Alexandra and 69 per cent in Diepsloot. “The average monthly household income in Orange Farm is R3 577, R4 301 in Soweto, R6 045 in Alexandra and R6 184 in Diepsloot. In addition, “Forty per cent of people in Joburg families depend on their employed breadwinners implying that a bereaved family in Orange farm spends 39 per cent of their monthly income on fees for the grave only,” the statement read.