Strike by funeral workers weighs heavily on frail health-care sector
SA, which is battling one of the largest Covid-19 outbreaks in the world, now faces another health-care crisis: a strike by the funeral industry.
The industry embarked on a national shutdown yesterday, demanding transformation of the sector, a Covid-19 relief fund, the recognition and legalisation of outsourced mortuary facilities and the abolishment of the tender system in the industry, among other demands.
The sector wants the government to transform the industry by allocating funds to assist in the development of small and emerging funeral undertakers.
The sector employs about 300,000 people and is worth more than R58bn, according to industry figures.
The grouping representing funeral parlours, the National Funeral Practitioners Association of SA (Nafupa SA), said there would be no body removals from hospitals or homes, no burials and no funeral supplies in the next three days.
This could lead to a health hazard and a possible spike in coronavirus infections even as the government was expected to relax lockdown regulations and move to level 1 soon.
There had been fears that SA could run out of body storage facilities as more bodies pile up at mortuaries, with the number of those who have succumbed to Covid-19 surging to 15,447 as of Sunday.
Nafupa SA deputy secretarygeneral Dalisu Gumede said day one of the strike on Monday had been effective.
We managed to cease industry operations across the country. The first day was 100% successful. We have also managed to reach agreements with associations that are not striking to close their operations in solidarity with us,” said Gumede.
He told Business Day they had not yet received feedback from the government regarding their demands.
Gumede said the police would have to collect the bodies of those who died while the strike was ongoing.
Libo Mnisi, president of the SA Funeral Practitioners Association, which represents more than 900 big funeral operators across the country and is not taking part in the strike, said there were incidents of violence across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The business premises of those who are not taking part in the strike were destroyed by the protesters. Computers were destroyed and [so were] coffins displayed in showrooms. This is denting our image as funeral practitioners,” said Mnisi.
He said bodies were not being fetched from homes and hospitals, and this was a health disaster waiting to happen because it could “lead to a flareup of infections”.
Yesterday, National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) general secretary Zola Saphetha said plans were under way to embark on an indefinite strike after the government failed to respond favourably to demands tabled earlier in September.
Nehawu is the third-largest public-sector union and represents nurses, doctors, pharmacists, cleaners, dispensary and reception clerks, community health workers, ambulance and morgue workers, community care workers and laboratory technicians, among others.
This is going to be an ugly battle, either from our side or the government s side,” said Saphetha, briefing the media on the outcomes of their special national executive committee meeting on Saturday.
Health expert Prof Francois Venter, a member of the ministerial advisory committee on health, said: “Health care under lockdown has suffered deeply: vaccines, HIV, TB, routine surgery, you name it.
This [Nehawu strike] will just make things worse. [Things are] so bleak, we didn’t need more challenges.”