Durban - It was anger and frustration heaped on misery for mourners at a municipal crematorium in Durban on Wednesday, when they found the furnace was out of action.
Dhyren Naidoo, 23, and his family had just completed rituals at the Mobeni Heights Crematorium to honour his late grandfather, Patchapan Munsamy-Moodley, when they learnt he could not be cremated.
“No one informed us the crematorium wasn’t working, It has put a blemish on the funeral,” said Naidoo.
Munsamy-Moodley’s body had to be taken to oThongathi to be cremated. The sudden change of plans disrupted the family and others who had come to pay their final respects.
Naidoo said he was extremely angry. He said catering preparations had been affected by the delay caused by having to travel to uThongathi. “People will get cold food. As part of our culture we can’t use appliances to heat food.”
Naidoo said his grandfather, who he described as his best friend, did not deserve such treatment.
He said they had held the funeral at Mobeni Heights because he was a resident of Chatsworth.
Clive Moodley, of Pinetown Funeral Services, which organised the funeral, said they were tired of taking flak from mourners for things beyond their control.
He placed the blame squarely on the municipality, which operates the crematorium.
Moodley said his company had been obliged to bear the cost of taking the body to oThongathi.
“We are fed up,” he said, adding that if the municipality was unable to run the facility, it should be privatised.
He said such incidents impinged on the dignity of a funeral and demonstrated how little respect the municipality had for the public.
KwaZulu-Natal Funeral Association chairman, Logan Chetty, said two blown-up burners had prevented the crematorium’s sole-functioning furnace from working on Wednesday.
“With the other furnace not working for the past four years, the only available furnace is taking on a lot of strain.
“The only solution is getting the second furnace - which will mark its fifth year of not working in January - up and running,” said Chetty.
He said he would request a meeting with eThekwini’s head of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, on the issues facing the facility.
According to Chetty, the city had sent out technicians to fix the problem on Wednesday and expected it be up and running again today.
“We cannot even cremate an oversized body in this one operational furnace because the door is small, and if you put an oversized body through it then the burners blow out,” Chetty said.
But Ngcobo, who spoke to the Daily News today, said claims that one of the furnaces had not been working for more than four years were untrue.
He said the municipality had replaced a broken furnace last year, but then the other packed up, again leaving the crematorium with just the one.
“The municipality does not produce burners, we have to go to the market to source it from the supplier and there is only one supplier.
“Unfortunately, we have a continuous problem and there is only one supplier. We have been told that it is being manufactured and it will only be ready next August,” he said.
Ngcobo said the municipality acknowledged it had a problem. He said staff were receiving regular training to help them run the furnaces better. The municipality was making regular check-ups to ensure all minor defects were discovered and repaired timeously.
He acknowledged one of the furnaces could not properly handle big corpses.
The Mobeni Heights Crematorium is not working because of a broken furnace, causing more grief for at least one mourning family on Wednesday.
Daily News