Meeting with Muslim Burial Organizations

The invitation to the various Muslim Burial Organizations (MBO’s) read as follows:

“The purpose of the meeting is to: • Discuss common challenges that (MBO’s) face in the administration of Muslim burials

● Enhance networking and collaboration among Muslim Burial Organizations The meeting was attended by 70 individuals representing the vast majority of the provinces. Some of the pertinent issues that surfaced were:

● Need for an inclusive approach to ensure adequate representation from the regional & provincial areas

● Need for a national forum to engage with government structures regarding legislation pertaining to burials, cemeteries & post mortems

● Land allocation for cemeteries becoming acute – by laws differ from municipality to municipality. There is an attempt to move away from demarcated faith based burial spaces

● Burial of foreign nationals who do not have requisite documentation becoming hugely problematic

● Payment to pathologists for conducting Post Mortems after hours is both illegal and unethical.