Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - October 6, 2005
Yasheera Rampersadh
Shirley Ngwenya, a public health researcher in Johannesburg, was addressing a Gauteng Aids conference at Gallagher Estate.
An indigent is a person who can be identified but whose family cannot afford to pay for a funeral.
Ngwenya conducted research on HIV/Aids, poverty and funeral costs and the impact it has on the municipality. She said there are a rising number of families who needed support to bury family members as well as to support families of people living with HIV/Aids.
"In many cases, communities, undertakers and church groups provide financial support for burials as immediate families cannot afford the cost," Ngwenya said.
"There is a high frequency of death, graves are expensive."
When the research was conducted in 2004, there were four district municipalities in Gauteng with indigent burial support programmes.
These were Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng, Tshwane and West Rand.
"Municipalities highlighted the need for indigent burial because there was an average of five requests a month for it and because of the increase in the number of unclaimed corpses from government mortuaries."
The indigent burial support programmes at these municipalities are to be used by South Africans only and people must be able to provide identity documents and death certificates.
Maria Hlonipho, from Ekurhuleni metro municipality, conducted a case study on the indigent support programme. She said the programme also provided support for families living HIV/Aids.
"The mayoral discretionary fund was set up to support the indigent. The department of health and social development [in Gauteng] provide free health services and free food."
She said the most important role it played was to assist with burial.
"But there are various conditions that the family needs to take heed of. For example, burials can only take place on weekdays, a space is allocated in the corner of the graveyard for an indigent burial and no tombstones are allowed to be erected," Hlonipho said.
She said the number of burials increased annually and added to the burden on resources.
"One of our many concerns and challenges is identifying indigents. We try to go out to informal settlement but we have not been able to identify all indigents."
Hlonipho added that families who have had indigent burials and who wanted the body of a family member to be exhumed for reburial would have to pay back the indigent fund and must pay the exhumation costs.
"There are cases like this where situations in the family have changed and children can finally afford the burial."
However, the speakers who stressed the need for indigent burial also encouraged people to save money to bury family members, even if it was just R20 a month.
Ngwenya said people needed to cut down on lavish funerals and expensive coffins.
Burial costs as well as costs of supporting the families of people living with HIV/Aids must be shared between municipalities and communities.
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