Buffalo City Metro’s health department is too short-staffed to carry out monthly inspections of registered funeral parlours.
This was revealed by acting head of health, public safety and emergency services Steve Terwin in a report tabled before council last month.
In the report Terwin said eight out of 38 funeral parlours in the metro’s database had not complied with health regulations when inspections were done during the second quarter of the current financial year (October and December 2016).
Terwin said: “Due to staff shortages, the section is unable to do inspections on a monthly basis.
“With more staff the section would be able to improve the inspection frequency from quarterly to monthly.”
However when asked about the problem this week BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said the metro had 21 environmental health practitioners doing inspections daily.
Their duties include water quality monitoring, environmental pollution control and food safety and control.
Quoting gazetted norms and standards, he said funeral parlour premises should be inspected quarterly.
Cindi said that while additional practitioners would help to achieve monthly inspections, this was “beyond the stipulated standard to mitigate the challenges that are prevailing in our communities”.
The report revealed that Mdantsane’s Kashe Funeral Parlour, Makinana Funeral Services in North End, Ikhaya Funerals in East London, Nayo Funeral Directors in Park Avenue, Three Angels Memorial in Belgravia, Mtoba Funeral Directors in King William’s Town, Abethu Funeral Undertakers in Zwelitsha and Xoto Funeral Directors in King William’s Town had all failed to comply with health regulation when inspections were done.
Mtoba funeral directors owner Ndileka Mtoba told the Daily Dispatch this week: “We had been having problems with our waste removal company.
“BCM suggested that we change companies as the one we had was not based in East London, so the one we have now is based in Berlin and we are working with them.”
A man who said he was the owner of Three Angels Memorial, but would not provide his name, said their problem with hot running water had been fixed five months ago.
Xoto Funeral Directors’ owner Phumzile Xoto said: “We managed to fix our problems last month, including the cleaning of the ceiling and fixing of water leaks.”
The Dispatch’s attempts to contact the other implicated parlours were unsuccessful.
Cindi said BCM intended to appoint new staff in the next financial year which starts in July 2017.
“The total package for six environmental health practitioners will be about R2161740 per annum,” he said. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za