Death certificate backlogs as funeral parlours brave influx
The South African Funeral Practitioners Association says it is experiencing an influx of deaths and burial order backlogs.
The association’s CEO Monageng Legae says last year this time his funeral home buried 70 people in a month, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they have buried 70 people in just two weeks.
Legae says the Department of Home Affairs is making the situation worse.
"We are not used to seeing the current numbers we are seeing, and it creates a big concern for us.
ALSO READ: Health system ‘cannot be clogged by people who are bleeding’, says Mkhize
"Home Affairs is delaying the process by delaying the issuing of death certificates and burial orders. Some of their offices are offline and, when we go to another one we are turned back, and there is no such thing in the regulations.”
Covid-19 regulations stipulate that people who die from conditions related to the virus need to be buried within 3 days.
Legae says whilst they do all the work and preparation to ensure that this is done, but the lack of death certificates makes it impossible.