CEMETERIES around the City are due for major restoration as the Mobeni Heights Crematorium is expecting a new cremator while clean-up operations at all cemeteries are intensifying.
The new cremator with an estimated value of R3.5 million, is currently being manufactured in the United States of America (USA) where a contract was awarded in an effort to replace the crematorium’s dysfunctional cremator.
Development Manager for eThekwini’s Cemeteries and Crematoria Division Linda Ntuli said the cremator is being manufactured in the USA as the department requires certain specifications. “We are anticipating that they will yield what the department requires in terms of specifications and deliverables,” he said.
The cremator will take 18 weeks to be manufactured, eight weeks to ship from the USA to South Africa and a further two weeks to install and commission. Ntuli stated that the cremator, which is more advanced than the old one, is estimated to be ready by February 2020. Speaking on the clean-up operations, Deputy Head for the City’s Parks, Leisure and Cemeteries Unit, Sibusiso Mkhwanazi said they formed part of the daily duties of the department and include pruning of trees, removing rubble, mending as well as replacing broken fences in cemetery facilities. “As a caring City we care for residents not only when they are alive, but also in their resting place.
Our staff maintain the cemeteries, remove all litter which includes beer bottles that gets thrown by mourners during funerals. We have since intensified such operations because we want to ensure that our cemeteries are in a neat and acceptable state at all times,” said Mkhwanazi.
erin.skeef@durban.gov.za | siphelele.buthelezi@durban.gov.za
