Angry undertakers literally brought their work to a protest yesterday when they laid a coffin in front of the Department of Home Affairs.
The demonstration, taking the form of a motorcade, started from Aviation Park at the Cape Town International Airport and slowly made its way via the N2 highway into the CBD, disrupting traffic along the way.
Undertakers United Front (UUF) co-ordinator Kenny McDillon says: “We marched to the provincial office of the Department of Home Affairs to hand over our memorandum.
“We drove at a funeral pace on the N2 but only used two lanes while opening the other for traffic,” he says.
Kenny says the protest was successful and they did not want to infringe on other people’s rights.
Funeral workers are striking across the country over changes to a host of procedures and regulations, including some introduced due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which they say make it hard for small, black-owned parlours to operate and give big players an advantage.
They want a Covid-19 relief fund to help the industry cope with the pandemic and are also complaining about the fact that government only uses certain parlours for state funerals.
In addition, they want a dedicated unit at Home Affairs to attend to their needs; and the department’s offices that used to be in major hospitals to be brought back.
They say the department must also stay out of the issuing of Certificates of Competence.
Home Affairs provincial manager Yusuf Simons accepted the memorandum and said: “I’m here to accept the memorandum on behalf of the department and I will forward it to the head office. We will respond in due course.”
The UUF gave the department seven working days to respond to their demands.
“This simply means if we receive no response by 25 September, we will gather here again for the whole week, no Home Affairs offices will operate, no deceased bodies will be removed from home or hospital.
“Home Affairs will be in no position to render any service as offices will be closed,” the UUF said.
EMS spokesperson Deanna Bessick said there have been reports overnight of some undertakers being prevented from removing bodies at some hospitals and families being unable to get deceased loved ones from certain parlours.
She added: “The issues that the undertakers are aggrieved about to our knowledge are related to issues regulated nationally by either Home Affairs or the National Department of Health.”