Funeral parlours suffer under loadshedding

The repercussions of load shedding has affected almost every strata of society in our country. Funeral parlours are also reeling from the effects of load shedding on their businesses with the result that a dignified send-off cannot be guaranteed.

While maintaining body temperatures during load shedding poses a threat to the condition of the body, load shedding at cemeteries is an even more challenging issue.

The constant power outages prevent the family from viewing a body in a good state, and financially it becomes cost-effective to bury family members as soon as possible as you are charged for every day your loved one lies in the funeral parlour cold room.

In many families, it is tradition to wait for most of the immediate family to arrive before commencing with the funeral ceremony.

This prolongs the funeral and allows for family visits and weekly funeral services to celebrate the life of the deceased during the mourning period, which costs the beareaved family money.

Anton Holby of Holbys Funeral Home said that he has the necessary resources to keep bodies at cool temperatures even during load shedding.

“I spend at least R300 a day to run the generator during load shedding. I also had to change some of my equipment twice due to the power being restored and blowing out the equipment,” said Holby.

Sudan Naidoo of Morgans Funerals said that load shedding messes up everything, but they have measures in place to keep bodies cold for as long as possible.

“It’s unfortunate that when we receive the body from the state mortuary, it’s not in a good state. We try our best to make sure we preserve the body as best as we can. When we do cremations we always let families know that the Cato Ridge Crematorium is most suitable as they have plans in place for load shedding and power outages, unlike Mountain Rise Crematorium. When there’s load shedding there, there is nothing that can be done,” Naidoo.

Themba Njilo, the founder of Induduzo Bespoke Funerals said load shedding is a killer.

“It’s here to finish us as business people, more especially the funeral sector.

“Our businesses are using power. We print documents, such as death certificates. When it comes to the cold room it’s a killer punch because dead bodies need a certain degree of temperature. Home deaths are worse because families keep them at home for a long time. By the time they reach the morgue, they are already in a bad condition. The families also call the undertaker too late so as funeral undertakers we are forced to have generators which consume a lot of fuel. In the end, we hardly see any profit,” said Njilo.