Double blow for the Covid-19 dead

It is a case of a double blow for the dead as undertakers claim Covid-19 bodies are languishing in morgues longer than the prescribed 30-day disposal period because of disruption in services in some Home Affairs offices in Gauteng.

This week, undertakers said at least six Home Affairs offices in the Johannesburg area could not issue death certificates, either because they were closed for sanitation, had no resources or due to system failures.

According to Neil Keight, managing director of Thom Kight & Co funeral parlour, said the Johannesburg Central Home Affairs office was closed on Wednesday due to a positive Covid-19 case and the Eldorado Park office was shut for sanitisation.

He said the Randburg branch was offline and had no ink; printers were not working at Ennerdale; there no burial order books in Lenasia; and the Soweto office was offline.

“We have many death certificates outstanding and the process is rather tedious and bereaved families are now getting rather irate with us as we cannot provide all the required and necessary paperwork to them,” Keight said.

He made an impassioned plea to department to up their game at this most trying of times and make things better for undertakers, who are in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic onslaught.

Keight said this was unacceptable and unlawful since funeral parlours had been originally instructed by the health department that bodies be disposed of within a three-day period.

“This could not work as if someone was to pass away on a Monday, the majority of our population being African prefer to bury their loved ones on a weekend, hence the waiting period that was most definitely not taken into consideration. [With the] White population, [the] minority is cremation and there is definitely no way that we are able to obtain all the required documents within three working days,” he said.

Keight said it was difficult to comprehend that these were some of the difficulties that they had to deal with to bury or cremate a loved one, saying surely the department should have been better prepared by the first and second waves of Covid-19 infections.

He asked how they were expected to work with state institutions that were not willing to work with them.

“I seriously do not think that Parliament has this under control, if anything, it seems that everything is falling apart and something really needs to be done about this current situation,” Keight said.

Secretary of the National Funeral Directors Association, Elsabé Basilio, said services disruptions at Home Affairs offices – when their services were needed most to process bodies – was a nationwide problem.

“This is a major problem currently. Home Affairs is a major problem nationwide. They work at their own hours and funeral directors must queue with the public,” she said.

The Citizen this week revealed how funeral parlours in Gauteng were seemingly overwhelmed, barely coping with the volume of deaths as the Covid-19 pandemic’s third wave rages through the province.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 deaths: Funeral parlours overwhelmed

Undertakers say currently there are 60% more deaths compared to the first and second waves but extremely busy and exhausted doctors were delaying in signing off death certificates, with the dead waiting on the living.

The Home Affairs department has confirmed that the Johannesburg office closed on Thursday due to a Covid-19 positive case and will only reopen on 05 July 2021 after it has been sanitised.

Spokesperson Siya Qozo said they were arranging to have a mobile office delivering services there for Friday.

He also confirmed that automated services at the Eldorado office were temporarily unavailable from 24th – 30 June for various reasons including power cable theft, technical challenges and a Covid-19 positive case.

“During this period, the office was doing hand written death certificates. The office has since been sanitized and officials are back at work (Thursday) and the system is online,” Qozo said.

He said their Randburg and Soweto branches had not been offline for at least a month and that Ennerdale printers were working and have not had problems this year.

Qozo said the Lenasia office has enough stock of burial order books.

siphom@citizen.co.za