Funerals held seven days a week
Conducting funerals have become a daily occurrence for funeral undertakers in the Mopani district of Limpopo due to Covid-19 related deaths.
According to funeral homes visited by the Herald, they used to conduct funerals only on weekends.
On rare occasions they had funerals during the week.
Since the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, funerals are conducted every day.
They say that many of the funerals are of people who have died in other parts of the country but are buried in this area.
As a result of the high number of burials conducted every week, they might soon run out of coffins. Locals are feeling the impact of the large number of people dying.
Many of those who have passed are breadwinners. Children are left behind facing a bleak future.
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The secretary of the South African Funeral Practitioners Association, Lordwick Ramathoka, who is also a funeral parlour owner in Tzaneen, said the high number of Covid-19 related deaths makes it difficult for funeral undertakers to cope.
“We no longer have enough coffins as the demand is too high and the suppliers have run out of stock,” said Ramathoka.
They are now working around the clock to try and meet the ever increasing demand.
He said that the unavailability of personal protective equipment (PPE) is a major concern to the industry.
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He appealed to the families of those who die at home not to hide the fact that they died of the Covid-19 so that precautionary measures could be taken to stop the spreading of the virus.
According to official statistics from the Department of Health in Limpopo which were available at the time of going to print, 118 people have died in public hospitals in the Mopani area.
Of the total number 70 are reported to have died in Tzaneen and the surrounding villages and townships, 24 in Greater Giyani, 15 in Ba-Phalaborwa, five in Hoedspruit and four in Greater Letaba.
According to the funeral undertakers, the number does not include those who have died at home and those who have died in other provinces.
Active Covid-19 cases in Mopani are 1624. Of the total number 717 are in Greater Tzaneen, 426 Ba-Phalaborwa, 295 in Giyani, 101 in Greater Letaba and 85 in Hoedspruit.
