A PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnership has been proposed to fix the broken furnace at the Tongaat Crematorium, which has been problematic since 2017.
In a bid to get the crematorium up and running, DA Councillor Yogis Govender has called on the eThekwini Municipality to revitalise the discussions on the repairs and to prioritise a budget for the facility.
“The Tongaat crematorium has been problematic since 2017 and has often been closed to the public. Bereaved families are turned away and redirected to other private facilities out of town and this has resulted in distress. Families are then forced into unnecessary additional costs and inconvenience. The eThekwini Municipality has had almost a decade to rectify this facility but has failed to do so,” said Govender.
She said the Tongaat Crematorium was another of the city's big failures on service delivery.
“This facility is only one of two municipal-owned crematoriums in the city and they still failed to maintain this adequately. The run-to-failure stance by the municipality plagues all their units as there is no consequence management."
Govender said she had escalated these issues to the senior head of the parks, recreation and culture unit.
“They are currently headless due to the resignations of both the deputy city manager and the head of this cluster. I requested critical information to understand why, yet again, the city is not acting with any urgency. In addition, I placed the matter before the January council by posing written questions.
“This prompted a senior manager to agree to an on-site meeting with myself, and invited community stakeholders and interested persons. With the help of management at the Verulam private crematorium and businessman Ricky Naidoo from Venk-Pac, there seems to be some hope of a public-private partnership to get this facility working again."
Neville Govender, from Truro Funeral Services in Tongaat, said the hold-up with the crematorium made it difficult for families.
“The issue is more of an inconvenience to the family rather than us because the costs are the same whether we use Verulam or Tongaat crematoriums. Following the meeting, we are on the fence on whether there will be a positive outcome."
He said there was one furnace at the crematorium, which was 50 years old.
"Right now, the machine will stop and start during a cremation as there is an electrical fault. We were doing a cremation last May and the furnace stopped working midway through. They had to make a plan to start up the furnace to complete the cremation. The crematorium has been closed since then. The council owns two crematoriums, in Mobeni and Tongaat. The issues with this furnace should have been given priority."
Krishna Reddy, the chairman of Tongaat Civic Association, said the repairs could be undertaken as there was a budget set aside.
"The repairs need to be a priority. Losing someone is already difficult. For grieving families to then travel to another facility when there is a crematorium in our backyard is not on. I’m glad the meeting was convened. The community will see there are efforts being made to speed up the process."