No need to panic about coffin supply in KZN after looting incidents
By Sibusiso Mboto
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Durban: The South African Funeral Practitioners Association (Safpa) says there is no need to panic over a possible shortage of caskets in KwaZulu-Natal as there is sufficient stock to meet the demand.
While there had been challenges over level 4 lockdown and the looting of caskets, in some instances during the riots two weeks ago, this did not amount to a crisis.
Safpa deputy president Ndabezinhle Ngcobo admitted that there was a shortage, but stressed that this was limited to Gauteng which had been hit hard by the third wave of Covid-19.
Johannesburg City Parks has moved to allay fears of backlogs at crematoriums around the city, attributing recent disruptions to the violent unrest of the past week. However, the spiralling death rate during this third wave of the pandemic is rattling the funeral sector.
Johannesburg City Parks spokesperson, Reggie Moloi, said numbers of burials and cremations have been “very high” during the third wave. “We had 1,900 burials in May. In June we were already sitting on 3,000. So, you can see the jump,” said Moloi.
By mid-July, burials were sitting at about 2,800. “Clearly, the number of burials for July will surpass those for May and June,” said Moloi. He said this was the worst he had seen since the pandemic hit South African shores.