The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has called on all death registrars, cemetery committees and burial societies to gather for an urgent meeting at the body’s offices on Saturday, to address new legislation that has been enacted with regards to burial of the deceased. The meeting will be attended by the provincial manager of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), Yusuf Simons as well as Susan Brice, cemetery coordinator for the City of Cape Town.

Areas of focus will be on the official registration of death registrars, and some serious points of concerns that certain death registrars are failing to do, as stipulated in the new legislation.

“The Department of Home Affairs wants to emphasise these points, and they do want to see those given the authority to be death registrars in the meeting,” said MJC 1st deputy president and chairperson of the MJC cemetery management committee, Sheikh Riad Fataar.

Amongst the concerns of the department are that at the time of burial families are required to produce a death certificate, something that isn’t always occurring. The City plans to be more stringent in having those certificates before a burial will be allowed to take place.

“From the City of Cape Town’s side they want to see a certificate issued before formal paperwork is completed. That death certificate is supposed to be produced by whoever handles the janazah at that time, and must be acquired from the DHA,” said Fataar.

For burial societies and those overseeing the burials, there will also be a serious look at how the Muslim community conducts its burial procedures in a bid to make the process easier for those that are handling it. Fataar said the aim would be to make the DHA and the City aware of these procedures, and “the good things the Muslim community does in terms of Janazah”.

“This is such an important meeting, and all the stakeholders will have an opportunity to sit together and ask each other questions,” said Fataar.

The meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday, 03rd October 2015 at 10am. VOC (Mubeen Banderker)