Undertakers want to compile own code

Undertakers are dead against controversial proposals aimed at regulating the industry.

Among the proposals is the appointment of an ombudsman to regulate the funeral industry and an order prohibiting undertakers from paying "commissions" to hospitals, hospices and the clergy to secure bodies.

The proposed code of conduct is being considered by the National Consumer Commission.

But the Funeral Federation of SA and its 3000 member businesses are drafting their own code of conduct to submit to the commission.

At a meeting with the commission last month the federation declared its support for statutory governance but expressed concern that the industry was not consulted on the proposed regulations and code of conduct before it was published in the Government Gazette.

"All objections and concerns were duly noted by the consumer commission," the federation's vice-chairman Dr Lawrence Konyana said. "The FFSA was invited to compile an alternative industry code that would be representative of the industry and address the serious shortcomings of the code proposed by the Funeral Industry Regulatory Authority."

Fira, a nonprofit organisation, is lobbying to act as ombudsman of an industry that turns over at least R4.5-billion a year.

But the National Funeral Directors' Association believes that Fira is not the "appropriate" organisation to act as the ombudsman.

NFDA member Adriaan Bester yesterday said: "We will use the three-month timeframe given by the commission to consult industry players and compile a draft code of conduct that is representative of the industry."

The National Undertakers Association of SA said it had identified clauses in the proposed code that were a "complete threat" to the day-to-day running of businesses.

"It violates our independence as business owners and undermines our collective choice of establishing associations," the association's Puseletso Masebe said.