Undertakers dead serious about shutting down Home Affairs

The country’s funeral directors are threatening to shut down the Department of Home Affairs head office in Pretoria on Tuesday, while disputing a statement from the department which announced a truce had been reached with the furious undertakers.

Undertakers have been at loggerheads with the government since late last year over the need for a Certificate of Competency (COC) needed for them to pick up and store bodies. At the time, the undertakers decided to use the mounting number of Covid-19 dead as bargaining chips by blocking access to morgues and refusing to move bodies from accident scenes, homes or anywhere else.

Also Read: Government backs down from undertakers, but fight not over yet

The government seemed to back down at the time, but now it seems a fight is back on the cards.

Government ‘lying about truce’

A grouping known as the Unification Task Team (UTT) has continued to lobby the government over the requirement of  a COC for the release of a body from state mortuaries, hospitals and forensic laboratories for burial.

Their grievance is that without a COC issued by the Department of Health to undertakers with cold storage facilities, small undertakers were unable to register any death at Home Affairs, book burial sites or cremate remains.

This week the department announced an engagement with UTT leaders. Director-general Tommy Makhode committed to consult his department and the SA Local Government Association for input into revising the regulations and implementation of issues related to the management of human remains.

The department said in a statement it had agreed with UTT that undertakers can be issued with a provisional registration, which would allow them to operate for a year while the parties find a lasting solution.

As part of this agreement, applications must provide proof of a cold storage facility lease agreement with a COC and the COC of the person (lessor) leasing the premises.

But the UTT has rubbished the contents of the statement, saying it was not what was agreed upon.

“We are being undermined. We were clear in that meeting but nothing in that statement reflects what we thought we agreed upon. Then what happens after 12 months? What will the process be from there?” spokesperson Muzi Hlengwa said.

COC is a breeding ground for fraud

Hlengwa the situation was that small undertakers entirely relied on those with COCs to conduct their business.

“I, as an undertaker with a COC and providing storage for the small undertaker, have to take responsibility and sign for everything, even bodies that I am not sure they are there or not. This opens up loopholes for fraud,” he said.

He said all they wanted was the de-linking of the COC from the application for registration and designation number to allow new entrants into the market to be able to register and take full responsibility for the remains.

Hlengwa said the only requirement for small undertakers to handle human remains should be a designation number and proof of a cold storage facility lease agreement.

“The misconception out there is that we want the scrapping of the COC. We would have targeted the health department if we wanted that. We are for the COC, because it protects the industry from unscrupulous players but it needs to be delinked from the registration. Many undertakers do not need storage because they bury once or twice a month,” he said.

Hlengwa said what would happen at the Home Affairs Department offices in Pretoria on Tuesday would be a taste of what would come nationwide if their demands were not met.

siphom@citizen.co.za