When approached for comment, Mayisela said he was not aware of the situation.
“All I know is that it has commenced its operations.”
Clive Moodley, owner of Pinetown Funeral Services said: “They contacted us yesterday and said they are open. We booked a cremation for noon.
“When we got there the machine packed up. I had to take the body back to the funeral parlour and do the cremation in Tongaat today.
“There was a private cremation with another undertaker that was also postponed yesterday.
“The problem is they should have properly tested the machine before asking us for bookings,” said Moodley.
Reddy said a prayer was conducted by both a Hindu and Christian priest on Tuesday because the community believed the crematorium “is plagued by a bad omen and will never get fixed unless certain rituals are performed”.
“The furnaces were supposed to be opened yesterday after millions were spent on replacing them with state-of-the-art imported machinery that failed to operate. Unfortunately, the furnaces packed up again,” said Reddy.
He said the prayer was performed to appease “angry spirits”.
TimesLIVE