Six years and R7.7 million later Pietermaritzburg crematorium still not operational

More than R7.7 million was spent on replacing the cremators at the Mountain Rise Crematorium in Pietermaritzburg, but the Hindu community and others wanting to use the facility still find themselves using crematoria in Durban and Port Shepstone. And six years later, it appears the municipality may have bought the wrong equipment.

A 2014 investigation by the Msunduzi Municipality’s Internal Audit Unit found several problems with the crematorium and the new equipment. According to the report on the investigation, which has never been released but which the Daily News has seen, cremation could not be undertaken as the equipment broke down while operating, which caused much trauma and inconvenience to finalise the procedure.

In October 2012, a tender was advertised for two cremators at a cost of R7 752 000, excluding VAT, over three years, after several problems with the old equipment. The new equipment was installed the next year. However, the system tripped about 15 minutes into the process during the first cremation in 2013.

Several subsequent breakdowns led to the municipality contracting engineering consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV to assess the facility. The assessment was attached as Annexure “B” of the report and revealed that the new machines overheated, melting electric cables, while steel pillars bowed and cracked. The loading doors jammed during operation and the cremation process took longer than expected.

Shaun Ramdhari, an engineer at Royal HaskoningDHV whose name appears with two other engineers at the bottom of the assessment report, said he could not comment on something that was about six years old. He said the person who was “intimately involved” with the project had left the company.

The municipal employees were found not to have engaged experts in the field of cremators to assist them in preparing the specifications for the equipment, which were inadequate. The Midlands Hindu Society and Msunduzi Crematorium and Cemeteries Concerned Citizens (MCCCC) recently raised the difficulty experienced by the community in using the equipment, with the Msunduzi Municipality leadership.

“We have been assured, after an inspection in loco by the leadership of the city, that a plan will be put in place to address our concerns and ensure that the crematoriums are functional and usable, while the municipality sources funding to replace the broken cremators,” said advocate Ranjiv Nirghin, president of the Midlands Hindu Society and chairperson of the MCCCC community.

Nirghin said if the municipality was unable to provide the service, the community was keen to take it over and run it for the benefit of all citizens. Nash Jadoo of Imbali Funeral Furnishers said grief-stricken families had been distressed by their experiences. “Services at the facility are not the best and all sorts of excuses are given when it stalls,” Jadoo said.

At one stage it stalled for a month and this is very much embarrassing and an emotional issue for the Hindu community,” Jadoo said. “Ratepayers’ money was wasted in this crematorium. How can these things break down in a short space of time yet about R8 million was paid?”

Jadoo added that the municipality had installed incinerators and was trying to get them to do the job of cremators. He said incinerators were used to completely destroy waste, including tissue waste from medical facilities, and produced a different result from cremators. Ward 31 councillor Rooksana Ahmed said there had been instances where the cremator would shut down while a body was being cremated.

“There is no respect for religion and culture in this municipality. It’s not right that families are deprived of the right to perform their last rites for their loved ones. Msunduzi is totally insensitive to the trauma the people have to go through when they want to cremate,” Ahmed said.

She said that incinerators were installed, instead of the requested cremators. This meant that after the cremation, workers have to manually grind the bones to ashes, she said. The SA Hindu Dharma Sabha said the dysfunctional crematorium deprived the Hindu community of their religious requirement to cremate the bodies of their dead.

Ram Maharaj, the organisation’s president and national chairperson of the Hindu Unity Movement, said: “A functional crematorium is an essential facility so that Hindus can practise their religion, as provided for in the Constitution. It causes an unnecessary financial burden to carry bodies from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The bereaved families are put through unnecessary pain.”

The Msunduzi Municipality failed to respond to questions on the matter sent to them last week.