Strike hitting funeral parlours

Burials and cremations have been hard hit by the Buffalo City Metro Samwu strike.

Two funeral parlours spoken to said graves were not dug at a number of BCM cemeteries, and cremations could not be done, causing anguish for many families.

Cemeteries came to a standstill at Mdantsane, Cambridge, Heaven Hills and King William’s Town.

An Avbob employee at an outlet in BCM, who was not authorised to speak to the media, on Monday confirmed that they were holding four corpses that were meant to be buried over the weekend.

“What happened over the weekend caused a lot of pain to some of the families.

“Some families could not buy burial graves as the offices where they were supposed to have paid for such were closed for most of last week.

“I have four bodies in our fridge which we are hoping will be buried this coming weekend if the strike is suspended.”

Affected families would not be charged extra, he said.

Paul Richter, of Richter Funerals in East London, said they were holding three or four corpses which were meant to be cremated at the Cambridge cemetery last week.

“Cremations could not be conducted as the people responsible for such were fearing for their lives due to the strike action,” Richter said.

“We also had problems reported at Cambridge, King William’s Town and Mdantsane cemeteries because there were no people to dig or close burial holes.”