Save land by cremating paupers says funeral association

With land being becoming a scarce commodity, one of SA’s leading funeral groups, the Funeral Industry Reformed Association (Fira), has called on the government to cremate paupers instead of burying them.

The association’s chair, Johan Rousseau, said land availability for burials has been a concern for years and “this Covid-19 can make things difficult if the government is not listening or taking advice” from them and other funeral industry role players.

Fira is an independent association with members consisting of more than 1,500 funeral parlours nationally.

Speaking to DispatchLIVE from his Pretoria office, Rousseau said overseas countries were “overwhelmed” by Covid-19 and SA would not be spared.

“We should learn a thing or two from this virus that has killed so many in the world,” he said.

“Many countries are struggling right now with burials and SA numbers are growing.

“The world was not prepared for this.

“Simply put, let's cremate the paupers to make land available,” Rousseau said.

He said East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Komani all faced challenges with land.

“We have shortages of cemeteries in SA and we have thousands of paupers buried by municipalities through tenders across the country.

“The government should act now and prepare for what we do not know,” he said.

“We have to have proper policies to regulate this and we need to start by cremating paupers instead of burying them.”

Rousseau said the “delay” in approving policies and regulations was proving costly as there were many unidentified corpses being kept at government morgues with little being done to track their next-of-kin.

“To prevent diseases from spreading, speedy approval is key as these paupers are lying in government mortuaries for weeks before moving to private parlours, where they stay for months before being attended.

“Storage fees are costly and who pays? The taxpayer.”

He said a number of government departments could work with the health department, which ran government morgues.

“The Eastern Cape is facing the same problems and it’s mostly rural.

“These are economic issues we are talking about and we need transformation in the funeral industry.

“It is still using policies that were created by the previous government.”

Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the department noted Rousseau’s concerns.

“This is a policy matter and we note his opinion,” Kupelo said.

Eastern Cape funeral director Mandla Makinana, of Makinana Funerals, said those who were buried as paupers were individuals who had no relatives.

“We are already cremating those who have no relatives,” he said.

Makinana, who has a tender to bury paupers, said the only challenge was the delay in releasing the bodies of paupers as the government needed to trace relatives first.

“Despite that, if the family is not found, we cremate the person but recently, as we were preparing to cremate one, a family came to claim the body,” he said.

Leonard Ncumbese of Asaza Funeral Services, which is based in Eastern Cape and Western Cape, said cremation of paupers was the “way to go”.

“By doing that the state can save a lot of taxpayers’ money.

“I support the call by Fira. This needs to be done as we are running out of land,” Ncumbese said.

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