Directors of funeral parlours say they have written to the eThekwini Municipality and applied to take over the management of the Mobeni Heights Crematorium, citing ongoing problems with malfunctioning furnaces.
They said there were only two furnaces; one had not been in operation for years and the other regularly stopped working. Dhayalan Moodley, of Moodley Funeral Services, said the only operational furnace stopped working last week.
“People could not cremate their loved ones. We need the crematorium to be functioning as we are servicing a large area. This is an ongoing problem and we can’t keep waiting for the furnace to be repaired. We have decided to write to the municipality requesting to buy the crematorium, it’s the only way we can service our community.”
Clive Moodley, president of the Progressive Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa, said for the past 20 years there had been one furnace functioning at the crematorium.
“We are trying to service Chatsworth and other communities as the nearest crematorium is far away. However the municipality is not working with us. We have been calling for both furnaces to be repaired and it’s not happening. At other crematoriums, it takes 24 hours to repair a furnace.”
Moodley said they felt the only solution was to buy the crematorium and operate it themselves.
“We will not only be able to repair the furnace, we will also put in more furnaces so we can service more people. We are looking to service communities all the way from Chatsworth to Umkomaas on the South Coast, that’s why we need these furnaces to be operating urgently.”
Another funeral parlour director, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Mobeni Heights Crematorium was an ongoing problem.
“When we are finally able to use it we still find that something goes wrong with the furnaces and we can’t use it for a long period.”
Mubarak Mohamed, deputy chairperson of the Chatsworth and District Civic Federation, said that he did not agree that the crematorium should be privatised.
“We have to think about our community members. This is going to raise the costs of cremation. I just can’t see how our communities are going to afford to give their loved ones a good send-off if this has to happen.”
Mohamed said they would call for a meeting early next year with the municipality and the relevant stakeholders, including the funeral parlour directors.
“We want to plan a way forward so that the community is served and all relevant parties are satisfied.”
The eThekwini Municipality said it would respond once it had received the relevant feedback.
The Mercury