Private crematoriums working 24 hours a day to clear backlog
|Published
Picture: Reuters
DURBAN - PRIVATE crematoriums have been granted permission to operate for 24 hours a day to meet the demand.
Despite the longer hours the crematoriums are fully booked.
Cato Ridge’s Cedar Ridge Crematorium manager Giren Singh said since Monday they were operating for 24 hours to accommodate the demand after their 24-hour trading licence was approved.
“At the moment we’re doing about 150 (cremations) a week, previously we did about 50 to 70 a week. So it has doubled,” said Singh.
“My next bookings are only for Monday next week. The rest of the week is already full. People are calling me and crying but unfortunately there’s not much we can do.”
He said they noticed a demand as soon as the second Covid-19 wave hit.
He also said even with two furnaces, they were trying to accommodate everyone.
Singh said they had to employ more staff and bring back casual staff.
He said despite their efforts to provide an efficient service, people were not keeping to the times allocated to them and not following the regulations such as social distancing, even though the crematorium is set up accordingly.
“We’re only allowing 30 people to attend a funeral but we’re still getting double and triple the number of attendees,” said Singh.
Govi Moodley of Verulam Crematorium said they started operating for 24 hours last week after the demand for cremations increased.
“We had to inform the Department of Health that we had to increase operating hours. We went to between 25 and 30 cremations a day,” said Moodley.
“Undertakers had also asked us for help because their facilities were getting filled up.”
Moodley said they have created three teams, each team had an operator and the team worked eight-hour shifts. They also employed more staff to assist.
He said they also had two furnaces and had serviced their machinery before the pandemic but they had their service providers on standby.
Moodley added that they hoped families would co-operate with them when attending cremations.
“Families sometimes delay and that puts pressure on us. Therefore, we appeal to the public and undertakers to adhere to the times that have been allocated to them,” said Moodley.
Clare Estate Umgeni Hindu Crematorium secretary Thegraj Kassie said on Monday they conducted 40 cremations, followed by about 35 on Tuesday. Those figures had increased from about 26 cremations a day.
Kassie said they had to hire extra staff and would be increasing the number of staff by another five or six to cope with the pandemic.
As a result, the first shift works between 7am to 3pm and the second works from 3pm to midnight.
“It is getting a bit hectic and there are more cremations coming in,” said Kassie.
“We are fully booked until Friday. There might be a few cancellations. That’s how bad it is at the moment.”
He said some people do not want to join the queue and want an early cremation but they have to follow the queue, including religions that bury early.
“We are giving priority to Covid-19 because of government regulation; they must be cremated as soon as possible but we are also trying to accommodate people who have died from natural causes,” said Kassie.
He also said they hoped nothing would go wrong because their machinery was being overworked.
Daily News