FIRA is calling for the funeral industry to be regulated after families received ashes despite their loved ones being buried without their knowledge.
Image: Chris Collingridge
The Funeral Industry Reformed Association (FIRA) is once again calling for the industry to be regulated after families were handed ash despite their loved ones being buried.
FIRA's Johan Rousseau said a funeral parlour owner was arrested, and charged with fraud, after he allegedly buried the deceased in the Welmoed cemetery.
"Ash was then handed over to the affected families and only after they asked questions about the ash did they realise that they were given the wrong ash," he said.
Rousseau said the incident has raised questions around who the ash belonged to and about the burials that took place.
Anita Momberg at the pauper’s grave of her mother, Tersia Murray.
Image: Supplied
"Let's ask ourselves from where were the ashes from that were provided to the families and whose ashes are they? These kind of aspects that places crematoriums, government and officials under the spotlight," he said.
FIRA has publicised a number of cases similar to these including an incident where a family buried the wrong person.
It was reported that Dudu Kubisi's body was handed to the wrong family. One year later, her body was exhumed and handed over to her family for a proper funeral.
Meanwhile, another family is struggling to find their loved one's body, almost three years after she allegedly drowned in the Eastern Cape.
In Benoni, the Bato Batsho Bakopane funeral parlour cremated a body despite the deceased's family stating that they wanted the body buried.
Rousseau said government needs to get on board and institute regulatory boards and authorities to deal with the issue.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) echoed Rousseau's statement.
"These troubling incidents underscore the urgent need for new legislation to regulate the funeral industry and its undertakers," said the DA's Madeleine Hicklin.
She said the frequent cases of mistaken identities, incorrect bodies sent to families for burial, and wrongful burials and cremations have reached a worrying level for the citizens of Gauteng.
"Urgent action is needed to address this issue. No family should have to endure such indignity and trauma," she added.
Hicklin said it is outrageous that the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) spent R3 million in the 2012/13 financial year on the development of the Gauteng Funeral Undertakers Bill and the Gauteng Funeral Industry Reform Bill, yet there is nothing to show for it.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) has also called for justice to prevail.
"These families must be treated with the compassion and respect they deserve in their most vulnerable moments," the party's Zama Ntshona said.
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