Cold fact: Funeral homes can’t cope with heatwave, load shedding

With bodies decomposing faster and mortuary cold rooms losing coolness in 24 hours, persistent load shedding, coupled with a heatwave, has plunged the multibillion-rand funeral services sector into a state of instability, according to the SA Funeral Practitioners’ Association (Safpa).

Deputy secretary-general Xoliswa Badashe yesterday told of the industry’s operational difficulties, imploring government to allocate land for the construction of additional mortuary cold rooms.

Badashe called on government to also come to the assistance of the embattled industry by subsidising funeral parlours to acquire generators and fuel.

South Africa, said Badashe, had an estimated 70 000 undertakers active in the domestic market, with the industry contributing between R5 billion to R10 billion annually to the fiscus.

Due to load shedding, Badashe said Safpa members were “troubled about how to deal with bodies decaying much faster at funeral parlours”.

“Cold rooms tend to lose coolness in 24 hours.

“Extended hours of load shedding, mean that mortuary cold rooms will not be cool enough.

“Even when we add generators – to combat the current load shedding, ensuring that bodies are cool enough – it places so much pressure on all the funeral parlours.

“This is due to not having the financial capacity and resources – such as land for extra storage facilities,” said Badashe.

Funeral parlours were constantly confronted by “the challenge of noticing that the constant on-and-off of electricity supply, ruins storage facilities, as well as compressors”, she said.

“This leads to us incurring more costs. “I think government will understand our frustration and the impact this has on bereaved families.

“Government can also help in this situation by subsidising funeral parlours in acquiring generators and fuel,” said Badashe.

“Not only does the current situation have a ripple effect on bereaved families, because their loved ones are in a decaying state at a rapid rate while in our care, but also due to experiencing delays in obtaining death certificate during the registration process at the department of home affairs.

“This forces families to postpone burials.” Badashe said challenges differed from province to province.

“In the Western Cape, the major issue across all funeral parlours is acute lack of space in body storage facilities.

“What we, as funeral practitioners, plead for is for government to allocate land for us to build more mortuary cold rooms.

“This will have huge positive impact on the service that we render to bereaved families, because we need to maintain bodies in good conditions.

“One must have a three-phase generator, which needs diesel.

“No family would like to see their loved ones in a poor state of decomposition.

“During stage 6, it is costing us three times more than normal and it is affecting our profit margins, especially with the diesel price having gone up significantly,” she said.

Calling on government to regulate the funeral services sector, Badashe said: “This will ensure that all funeral practitioners are compliant with expected standards – curbing the proliferation of unscrupulous undertakers and those that are not registered.

“We want to ensure that the services that we provide are uniform, with environmental inspectors visiting our operations.”

Badashe implored government to liaise with the association to regulate the industry – professionalising the sector.

According to analytical firm Research and Markets, the funeral services industry in South Africa has been growing at about 12% annually.