Funeral parlours across the country are having a hard time keeping up with the rising costs of running mortuaries through generators and the breakdown of equipment caused by power cuts.
Eskom has been implementing load-shedding for weeks, which has had a devastating effect on the general public and businesses.
Johan Rousseau, chairperson of the Funeral Industry Reformed Association, said the frequency of load-shedding by Eskom was placing immense pressure on members across the country.
“They are struggling to keep up with the costs of keeping the fridges running all the time. Some of our members are complaining that it costs them up to R8,000 a day to keep their business running. The mortuary works like a home refrigerator. The more flesh you have in the morgue, the longer it has to run.
“It is a big challenge at this stage,” Rousseau said.
Sipho Sithole, who operates GS Funeral Parlour in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, said running a mortuary that takes 15 bodies costs them about R200 in petrol for the generator every third day during load-shedding.
He said this year’s load-shedding has been the worst.
“This year, twice we have had breakdowns on our fridge because of the power surge when electricity comes back. Each time we called the technician that fixes the fridge, we have had to part with R18,000. Judging by the way load-shedding is going, it is clear we are still going to spend more money on our fridges,” Sithole said.
He said load-shedding has been happening at least twice a day, varying between two and four hours.
“We have no choice but to use a generator because if it is not switched on, we can have a mess on our premises. We have a brand to protect and a reputation that we have built, which we must uphold,” Sithole said.
Scotty’s Funeral Service, a few blocks away from Sithole, said he has been able to manage load-shedding because of the size of his fridge which is bigger, taking 30 bodies.
The director, who wished not to be named, said his fridge gives him between four to six hours while off before ice in it starts to melt.
“We have two generators that are on site. Since Eskom has been implementing load-shedding for about two hours, we have not panicked at all because our fridges are not affected,” he said.
He said that as soon as the power is lost in the neighbourhood, one of their staff members rushes to the mortuary to turn off the fridges to protect them from a surge.
“That person is constantly on standby to also come back when power returns to switch on the fridges. Without that our fridges would also break down. I constantly have to have R25,000 just in case it breaks down to pay the technicians. The fridge has to be fixed within that six hours I mentioned,” he said.
He said they also spend money on diesel to run the machines used to produce tombstones, which costs him about R2,100 a week.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers, National Union of Metalworkers of SA and Solidarity signed the wage agreement with Eskom on Tuesday that ended a wage deadlock.
“It is a 7% wage increase across the board… and the R400 increase in the housing subsidy. I can tell you now that everybody is back at work as we speak. All our members are fully back at work,” said NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu.
When Eskom started implementing stage 6 load-shedding last week it blamed it on the disruptions that had been caused by the strike at its power stations due to negotiations that collapsed between Eskom and the unions.
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