Funeral industry declared essential service
Declared by government as an essential service, funeral parlours and mortuary workers will still be available to carry out their services during the mandatory 21-day lockdown period.
REST ASSURED, your funeral service provider will still be able to assist you at your time of need.
This was reiterated by the South African Funeral Practitioner’s Association (Safpa) on Thursday, 26 March, at a press briefing in Umbilo.
Declared by government as an essential service, funeral parlours and mortuary workers will still be available to carry out their services during the mandatory 21-day lockdown period.
Speaking at the briefing, the deputy president of Safpa, Ndabe Ngcobo, said their organisation is nationwide and this rule applies to all service providers.
“People will also still be able to consult with their funeral parlour and make payments as the banks remain open as well. We’ve also got staff members protective gear that they wear during removals, regardless of whether the cause of death was the coronavirus or not,” he said.
Ngcobo added that this was a safety precaution for their workers as the virus’s incubation may take up to 14 days to manifest.
“There’s a lot that we’ve discussed as an organisation to restrict people so as to protect them getting infected, this includes families not cleansing or bathing the bodies of their loved ones because it requires physical contact.
“We wish for people to leave this task to us as we have fully trained and protected staff to do this. We know that people do this culturally, but we ask that during this pandemic, we can carry it out,” he added.
Chief executive of the Durban based Icobelethu Funerals, and the KZN chairperson of Safpa, Nomfundo Mcoyi said government’s call for drastic decreases in the number of mourners should be emphasised.
“We know how difficult this is especially for Africans because we generally mourn in numbers, but we communicate all of this to the deceased’s family to ensure that we are abiding by the law,” she said.
“We had burial challenges where families planned to bury their loved ones before the president announced the lockdown. A lot of families changed their burial dates as a lot of people were uncertain what would happen afterwards. We want to assure the public that as an essential service provider, as declared by government, we are open during the 21-day lockdown, we will assist on any day of the week, people should not panic. Burials are also open for any day of the week,” Mcoyi added.
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