The  Funeral industry  Unification Task (UTT) Team has been threatening the Department of Home Affairs about its nationwide protest over death certificates. On Tuesday the protestors had an altercation with police as they attempted to shut down the Home Affairs Head office in Pretoria. The Department of Home Affairs has secured a court interdict that prohibits members of the UTT from intimidating Home Affairs staff and people visiting Home Affairs offices. The interdict also prohibits UTT from damaging any Home Affairs property.

The interdict forms part of the contingency plan of the Department to ensure that people who need Home Affairs services are not inconvenienced. The interdict was served on UTT yesterday. The Department of Home Affairs has regular lines of communication with the UTT. They have used these lines of communication to raise issues of concern to them. Some of the issues they have raised with us fall under the mandate of the Department of Health and local municipalities.

In the regular engagements with the UTT, the Department has indicated the need to consult the Department of Health and the local municipalities through the SA Local Government Association (SALGA). The consultations between the Departments of Home Affairs and Health and SALGA on the issues raised by UTT are taking place.

Two outcomes of these engagements was an agreement to grant provisional designation for funeral parlours or undertakers to temporarily conduct business relating to Home Affairs registration of deaths.

As part of this agreement, applications to be designated funeral undertakers are required to comply with the following;

The second decision was to grant this permission to those not yet designated to apply and register deaths for a period of 12 months while the three State entities find a lasting solution to the issues raised by the UTT, especially those relating to regulations.