Mourners at a funeral service held at the Luvuyo Hall on Saturday 28 December 2013, had to wait for over an hour for a hall caretaker to open the gates so that the funeral could start, only to be evicted from the hall half-an-hour later.
Mourners at a funeral service held at the Luvuyo Hall on Saturday 28 December 2013, had to wait for over an hour for a hall caretaker to open the gates so that the funeral could start, only to be evicted from the hall half-an-hour later.
To add insult to injury, the hall was left filthy after a previous function, according to the deceased's niece, Pumla Joja.
Hundreds of mourners and well wishers were stunned when they were greeted by locks at the venue where they were to bid farewell to Reggie Pongolo. This sparked outrage and allegations of misconduct on the part of Makana Municipality workers, whose job it is to look after this public facility.
A ward committee member from KwaNdancama township, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims the caretakers of the hall abuse alcohol and fail to wake up the next morning to do their jobs. He said some of the caretakers don't even bother going to open the hall and usually tell people who book the hall to fetch the keys from the caretakers' homes.
He also claimed the ward committee has been squabbling with the Municipality over who should hold the keys to the hall, saying that it doesn't make sense for the keys of the hall to be kept by a caretaker who stays in Joza instead of Kwandancama.
He also alleged that it is not the first time an incident like this has happened at the hall.
A Hi-Tec Security technical response team was called in to deactivate the alarm so that the Makana Fire department could break into the building and allow the mourners to enter.
They had booked the half for three hours, Joja said. She said her cousin had booked the hall for R360 on Tuesday 24 December, for the service to take place that Saturday.
"I met the caretaker on Thursday 26 December and asked him for the keys so that we could keep them at my place, but he refused, saying that I don't need to worry because he'll be at the hall come Saturday," she added.
Joja later told Grocott's Mail that the Municipality had promised to re-imburse them the money they had paid to book the hall.
She said a supervisor of the caretakers at Makana Municipality had apologised and attributed the inconvenience to an administrative bungle.
Joja said the supervisor told her someone had forgotten to attach the proof of payment and that no files showed Luvuyo Hall had been booked. Makana Municipality's communications officer, Yoliswa Ramokolo, apologised to the family and said the Municipality would be taking the allegations seriously and running an investigation into the matter.
