Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency(ANA) Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency(ANA)
Durban - THE two-day Pan African Cemeteries and Crematoria Conference in Durban ended earlier this week and while this conference is only in its second year, some in the KwaZulu-Natal funeral industry felt it was a “waste of time”.
Other stakeholders were apparently not invited.
The aim of the conference, hosted by the eThekwini Municipality, was to highlight the issue of the shortage of burial space in cities, including Durban. The conference heard from professionals in the cemeteries and crematoria sector, academics and government officials on trends, international issues and solutions and a broad range of concepts affecting the industry.
Pinetown Funeral Services director Clive Moodley said he did not go because it was “a waste of time”.
“They (the municipality) are encouraging cremation but they cannot provide the means for that. The Mobeni Heights Crematorium hasn’t been working for 10 years,” Moodley said.
On Monday, Head of the Parks, Recreation and Culture Unit Thembinkosi Ngcobo said he no longer wanted to give a time frame to the fixing of the Mobeni Heights Crematorium but, hopefully, by the end of the year the equipment would have arrived.
“I know we have been promising this. We said to you ‘in two months’ time’, but that’s the information I was given. I was told that the necessary equipment was on its way to South Africa, but it did not arrive,” he said.
The National Funeral Practitioners’ Association of SA general secretary, Nqaki Ndaba, said he felt parts of the conference were not relevant because people from other cities shared their views.
But Nafupa wanted to hear from people from Durban and about solutions for the city.
“We’re being told that there is no land and we should tell people to cremate people, but Africans prefer burial,” Ndaba said.
KZN Funeral Directors’ Association director Logan Chetty said they were not invited to and had wanted to attend.
Ngcobo said they hoped national and international input would help the city begin to find a sustainable solution to the lack of burial space.