Bodies pile up at city crematoria, allegedly stored in offices overnight

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Durban - Bodies are piling up at Durban’s Stellawood Crematorium and are being stored overnight without refrigeration much to the horror of families of the dead. With state crematoriums around the city largely out of order, pressure was being placed on Stellawood, which in turn had resorted to the “illegal” and “immoral” practice of not refrigerating bodies, which also posed health risks, said authorities. On Friday, a family who requested anonymity were shocked to learn that their relative, who was scheduled for cremation at Stellawood on Thursday, had not been cremated. Management failed to inform the family or the funeral director of the situation, and it is alleged the body was stored overnight in an office. “We called to enquire about the cremation the next day and was told that it was not done as planned because of Stellawood’s policy. When we asked where the body had been kept, we were told it was stored at the crematorium as there are no fridges,” said a funeral director, who assisted the family and also requested anonymity.

She said there were at least 15 coffins with bodies piled in a room when she arrived there on Friday.

“The staff told us it was policy to leave the bodies unattended overnight. We collected the body and took it to Pietermaritzburg to have it cremated.”

According to Stellawood’s 14-body per day policy, once the limit is reached no further cremations are performed, she said.

The funeral director alleged it was a frequent occurrence, and the facility’s failure to inform the affected families of the situation, was unacceptable.

When the Sunday Tribune visited the crematorium, bodies in coffins awaiting cremation, believed to be from the previous day, were in the open and seen stacked on top of each other, near a furnace.

The Stellawood Crematorium is managed by Independent Crematoriums of SA. Operations manager Cedic Barthus said there had been “miscommunication” issues and the crematorium was working on having the situation rectified.

He said a contributing factor was that Stellawood was dealing with a larger load due to state crematoriums being defunct.

“To avoid such instances going forward, we are going to make sure that we will only take cremations on a booking basis. Sometimes we tell funeral directors that we have reached our limit but they still insist on bringing bodies through.

“In future, if there is ever a case where we have bodies that are not cremated, because we do not work overnight, we will make arrangements for them to be stored in a mortuary,” said Barthus.

He assured that when bodies are not cremated they are kept in a well secured place, but never outside.

Barthus said he understood that it was a “sensitive” issue and that the dignity of the deceased was of the utmost importance.

Head of eThekwini Municipality’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Unit Thembinkosi Ngcobo described the situation as “disgusting”.

He said the municipality had not been aware of the situation and that he would send a team to the crematorium to investigate.

“If they are keeping bodies that way, it is against the law and against health operating standards. It is immoral.”

Ngcobo confirmed that only the crematoriums in Clare Estate, Verulam and oThongathi were fully functional. He said the municipality was in the process of acquiring a new crematorium in the short term.

“Within the next two years, we are planning to build a crematorium in Phoenix and one in the south of Durban,” said Ngcobo.

Johan Rousseau, chairperson of the Funeral Industry Regulatory Association (Fira), said the situation at Stellawood Crematorium was not an isolated issue and was one of national concern.

“This is not an isolated issue. In fact, we received complaints of similar situations occurring in Johannesburg. This week alone, there were three complaints about crematoriums in Randfontein, Rustenburg and Pretoria.”

He said Fira had written to the National Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to intervene but had not received any feedback.

“Storing bodies in this manner can have serious health implications and is not safe. It is also against the law.

“We asked the health minister to intervene and make sure something was done about this situation more than two years ago, but it was ignored,” said Rousseau.

However, spokesperson Popo Maja for the National Department of Health said it was not its mandate to address this.

“Municipalities are responsible for crematoriums as they license them. They should make sure everything is above board with regards to their operations.”

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SUNDAY TRIBUNE