Funeral practitioners knee-deep in death

The South African Funeral Practitioners Association says Covid-19 deaths could be up to three times higher than what government statistics reflect, as funeral parlours were overwhelmed with the influx of bodies this winter.

According to the association’s spokesperson and director of Sopema Funerals, Monageng Legae has had a busy week, and it is only Tuesday. On Monday, he bought a mobile cold storage facility to deal with the overflow at his mortuary facility, which is the result of a combination of the higher numbers of deaths and government’s inability to keep up with the issuing of death certificates.

Families often complain that trying to get a death certificate from department of home affairs branches on time is impossible for Covid-19 cases. According to government regulations, burials for Covid-19 deaths have to be done within three days. But Legae’s mortuary facility, which fits 24 bodies, has been full all weekend, with some of the deceased being suspected and confirmed Covid-19 deaths which were over a week old.

“The numbers that government is currently showing which is around 4,000 deaths – we are confident to even say that this number is not correct. The number that we are currently seeing is triple what they are currently showing us,” says Legae.

“To break it down for you. In June last year, which is the peak season for deaths, we normally would have done about 70 deaths in a month. But I have already surpassed my number. I have done over 150 burials in the last two weeks of July. So again, remember that this positive cases will only be confirmed positive when they come from a hospital and they have their test result.”

Legae has had to hire additional staff to deal with after hour calls for pick-ups around Johannesburg from as far as Cosmo City. The influx has been felt by the industry at large, he adds.

At the front entrance of his Soweto offices, a large marquee greets customers, an addition which was made recently as a result of the high influx of new requests for burials. Many of these families have been left cash-strapped by the economic consequences of the lockdown period and cannot afford to pay for funerals out of pocket. This as insurance companies refuse to release funeral cover funds without death certificates which, of late have been notoriously difficult to receive on time.

Sopema Funeral Services CEO Monageng Legae is seen at the funeral parlour, 21 July 2020, in Soweto. Legae says due to the coronavirus the funeral industry is also facing its own struggles with unbudgeted increases in the funeral processes. He has also been forced to increase his mortuary facilities to cope with an expected increase in deaths. Picture: Michel Bega

This has led to some funeral parlours bearing the funeral costs upfront as a form of credit to such families. This as both an act of kindness and desperation, because if bodies do not move, storage facilities are quickly filled beyond capacity.

The association has called for the department of home affairs to open up its offices for longer hours and possibly hire additional staff to deal with the current backlog in the issuing of death certificates.

This past weekend, hospital group Netcare announced that it had set up free-standing mortuaries at some of its hospitals to ensure the safety of health and funeral parlour workers in light of rising Covid-19 numbers across South Africa.

Of the 5,173 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, 917 were from Gauteng as of the latest figures. To date, South Africa has had 373,628 confirmed cases of which there have been 195 thousand recoveries.

A worker at Sopema Funeral Services cleans the premises, 21 July 2020, in Soweto. CEO Monageng Legae says due to the coronavirus the funeral industry is also facing its own struggles with unbudgeted increases in the funeral processes. He has also been forced to increase his mortuary facilities to cope with an expected increase in deaths. Picture: Michel Bega

The undertakers’ suspicion that these official figures may not tell the true story is also supported by a report from the SA Medical Research Council.

The Council last week recorded an excess of almost 11,000 deaths from natural causes between 6 May and 7 July, which indicates a massive disparity between predictions based on historical data, and reality.

“In the period, 6 May-7 July 2020, there has been an excess of 10,994 deaths from natural causes of persons 1+ year old when using a revised base accounting for lower mortality during lockdown. For people 1-59 years, the excess is 3,655 and 7,305 for people 60+ years,” the report said.

The report does not explicitly say that all these deaths are due to Covid-19 and the lockdown, but does support the South African Funeral Practitioners Association’s experiences.

Also interesting to note was that despite the massive excess in natural deaths, unnatural deaths were far lower than predicted, showing a 28% decrease from the predicted number.

On Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and Deputy Minister, Njabulo Nzuza, are scheduled to deliver the budget vote speech for the department of home affairs. The department had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publishing.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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