DURBAN - Three families have been left traumatised after a Pietermaritzburg crematorium broke down for seven hours, leaving one body partially burnt and two other bodies decomposing, while loved ones waited on Sunday.
Although the crematorium shut down due to loadshedding, Msunduzi municipality said that a fault in the city's electrical grid did not allow for power to be restored at 4pm which delayed the process.
“Unfortunately, the incident at the crematorium was beyond our control,” said city spokesperson Thobeka Mafumbatha.
She explained that after the normal loadshedding in the area yesterday, the electricity did not come on as it should have.
She said the electricity department was called in to sort out the problem and had to find the fault “which took longer than anticipated”, but eventually power was restored at around 10pm and the cremations continued.
She assured that the facilities at the crematorium were in perfect working order and are serviced regularly.
“We are certainly sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused by this incident and this was certainly beyond our control. As a contingency measure we will be doing bookings two hours before loadshedding and two hours after loadshedding, provided the schedule is not interrupted,” she said.
However, one of the grieving families said they could not forgive the municipality for the traumatic ordeal they went through during their time of loss.
Anitha Brijlal’s body lay in the incinerator from 1pm until 9pm “half-burnt” while her family, a local ward councillor and other grieving families tried to contact the municipality.
Her son, Reaan Brijlal said the incident had been scarred into his memory and he could never forgive Msunduzi municipality for disrespecting his mother's last rites.
“She stayed in the furnace for so many hours and the staff told us that her body was not completely burnt. No family should ever go through what we did, and no person should ever be disrespected in their final moments this way,” a tearful Brijlal said.
He said that while his family waited for his mother's cremation to continue, two other families waited patiently for their loved ones’ cremations to start.
Brijlal said that “one of the worst scenes played out” when one of the bodies began secreting blood and other substances, as a post mortem had been conducted on the body.
“This family waited for more than seven hours for their loved one to be cremated. The man's son could not even walk because he was mourning his father and then had to endure this. The body was decomposing in the heat and it could not be taken back to the mortuary,” he said.
Brijlal said he made at least 11 calls to the municipality, while waiting at the crematorium on Sunday.
“They kept saying technicians were on their way but no one arrived. Only ward councillor Rooksana Ahmed was there and waited with the families until midnight. She was so supportive and empathetic,” he said.
DA provincial deputy leader Mergan Chetty said it was the incompetent management of the city that led to this incident. Chetty called for the Msunduzi municipality to be placed under administration and the council dissolved.
“It is the incompetent cadre deployment that results in such incidents because people do not know their jobs. The MEC for Cogta Nomusa Dube-Ncube is placing other municipalities under administration yet ignoring the capital city's needs,” Chetty said.