Hundreds of mourners and traditional leaders in the Eastern Cape are not happy with the one-hour funeral service regulation by the government to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They said this kind of funeral shows disrespect to the dead.
Nosipho Malgas (54) of KwaNonqubela kasi in Alexandria, near Port Alfred, buried her sister Nontobeko Mhlahlo (62) on Saturday and she cried when asked about the funeral service.
"Our hearts are broken, and they will take time to heal because we have not buried our sister with dignity. We understand the government introduced these laws to protect us from the spread of the coronavirus.
"To us the Xhosa people, a funeral is a moment to give the deceased a memorable send-off with a dignified funeral."
"But now it’s like we are dumping our people into the grave. Everything must be done at high speed, but a funeral is a moment of silence. People could not come during the week to mourn with us during the night vigils because of these regulations. Again, on the funeral day, they are not given enough chance to console the family and pay their tributes because the police are enforcing the law."
Bonisile Moli, a pastor at Ishmael Congregational Church of South Africa, said: "You can never conduct a funeral within an hour. We must pray, sing, read the obituary, preach, and console the family.
"This becomes chaos more than a funeral, people are crying and some are fainting because of grief, then the funeral service gets disrupted."
Loyiso Singata, chairperson of the National Undertakers Workers Association of SA in Nelson Mandela Bay region, said in rural areas it's not easy to conduct a funeral in one hour.
"Two weeks ago I had a funeral in Qunu. The family and the mourners defied the lockdown regulations. The service took more than four hours. There was nothing I could do because they don't even need my hearse to take the body to the grave, like in the kasis. They carried the coffin themselves into their family graves.
"In kasis, they are complying because of the police but are not happy. Also, the viewing of the body is no longer done during the funeral. These are some of the issues that make them not happy with the one-hour funeral," he said.
Provincial chairperson of the House of Traditional leaders, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, said there are better ways to deal with this matter.
"We had situations in the rural areas whereby the police put down tents at homes of the bereaved. Mourners put up these tents because their homes could not accommodate 50 people for the funerals.
"We want people to understand that we all have a responsibility to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In so doing, we should not antagonise the people because they are not the enemy."
Nonkonyana said this law violates many cultural rights.
"Deceased persons have a right to be treated with respect and be provided dignified funerals.
"In our culture, there is no way that a person can be given a funeral within one hour. A one-hour funeral is like burying a child.
"A body, especially of elderly people, must have last night with family members. In some cultures, a sheep is slaughtered to receive it. In the morning, a cow is slaughtered as a sign of a farewell to ancestral living," he said.
"For this reason, we are engaging the government to review such regulations as we don't want our people to be rebellious."
Provincial Cogta spokesman Mamkeli Ngam referred us to Cogta national spokesman Mlungisi Mtshali, but Mtshali did respond to our calls and messages.
