1 509 bodies unclaimed

KWAZULU-Natal has the highest number of unclaimed bodies at state mortuaries in the country. Political parties are now seeking answers as to why bodies are piling up.

The following is a breakdown of statistics on unclaimed bodies provided by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+): KwaZulu-Natal: 1 509. Gauteng: 1 049.

Limpopo: 353.

Western Cape: 350.

Eastern Cape: 315.

North West: 251.

Free State: 108. Mpumalanga: 68.

Northern Cape: 42.

Philip van Staden, a FF+ MP and its spokesperson for health, said the statistics were provided to the party in a parliamentary question posed to Joe Phaahla, the Minister of Health.

“We explained to the minister that the party had received complaints from the public about corpses being preserved with ice packs because there is not enough space in the state morgues to keep them, and about corpses kept in the morgue for more than two years.

“We asked that measures should urgently be implemented to prevent this problem from escalating any further. Provision must immediately be made to adapt the capacity of morgues to accommodate the numbers to ward off a crisis.”

Van Staden said the situation amounted to a violation of regulation 180, section 10, of the National Health Act, which determined that a person must be buried within 30 days of their death.

“In cases where there is no family or where they cannot afford a funeral, the government must give the deceased a pauper’s burial. Information received by the FF+ indicates that problems with the state making payments to undertakers often result in funerals not taking place, which leads to backlogs.”

He said at the moment it seemed that talks between the forensic pathological services, local municipalities and the police had not yielded a solution.

“Existing legislation on this will most probably have to be amended and all stakeholders in the industry should be involved in the process. The FF+ will also investigate the matter to determine whether the statistics are correct.”

Madeleine Hicklin, a DA MP and its Shadow Deputy Minister of Health, said the unclaimed bodies in mortuaries across South Africa dated back to 2017.

“There are 1 500 corpses remaining unclaimed in KZN, while in Gauteng, the figure stands at over 1 000. The Gauteng Department of Health claims to be encouraging families and relatives to identify and collect the remains of their loved ones. The sheer number of bodies remaining unclaimed in state mortuaries poses a significant breach of the health regulations, and as we move closer to the summer months, this phenomenon will pose significant health risks as stage 6 load shedding continues unabated.

“Few of the mortuaries, countrywide, have generators, and this will see bodies decomposing rapidly, causing even further challenges to the overburdened state mortuaries.”

Hicklin said it was common practice that, if a body was not claimed within seven days, the mortuary sent fingerprints to the SAPS Criminal Records Department and to the Department of Home Affairs in an attempt to identify the bodies.

“Thereafter, a pauper’s burial can be arranged. This seems not to be the case here. The ministers of health and electricity must address this crisis in the making. This horrific state of affairs is increasing the trauma and grief of family members trying to mourn their loved ones.”

Ncamisile Nkwanyana, an IFP MPL and its KZN spokesperson for health, said the Department of Health in the province needed to provide a detailed plan and clear timeline to address the issue of unclaimed bodies in government mortuaries.

“Respecting the living means respecting the dead, too. A deceased person’s remains also need to be treated with the necessary dignity and respect. It is unfathomable that some unclaimed corpses date back to 2017. It is reported that around 1 509 bodies are unclaimed, which is in violation of health regulations and is posing a serious health hazard to mortuary staff.”

Nkwanyana said for mortuaries to grapple with storing dead bodies for so many years indicated that incompetence was involved.

“Somewhere, somehow, someone is failing to perform his or her allotted duties. It is high time for Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane to provide plans to address this issue, which deserves an urgent solution. She must take the public into her confidence about these delays by the Health Department.”

Ayanda Zulu, the spokesperson for the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union, said the department needed to take responsibility for the situation.

“We had a similar problem not too long ago. We warned the department that if they did not start resolving the matter, it would escalate. In KZN, the

Gale Street Mortuary was closed and no other facility was opened."

Johan Rousseau, founder of the Funeral Industry Reformed Association, said: “We must understand that we had substantial border controls pre-1994, which eliminated illegal immigrants coming into the country, as opposed to today, when people are entering the country illegally and not being controlled effectively.

“This has a ripple effect on the capacity of government, because you cannot have the same number of government mortuaries throughout the country, and the increasing capacity of South Africans and illegal migrants as a whole entering the country. This places a lot of pressure onto our forensic facilities.”

Rousseau said the reason for the pressure was that the illegal immigrants were not on South Africa’s database.

“The Minister of Health also did not know the capacity of our mortuaries in the country. In Parliament the question was asked to the minister about the capacity of the Roodepoort State Mortuary. The minister responded by saying that the mortuary had a capacity of just over 2 000 trays for deceased people.

“Our investigations, however, have found they only have space for 101 deceased people on trays and 19 on trolleys. This means the total capacity is 120, opposed to the minister’s figures.”

He said there were many decomposed bodies in these mortuaries because the government did not have the proper infrastructure. “There are some mortuaries that have generators but do not have fuel, and others do not have generators at all. Government needs to take responsibility for the issue.”

The Department of Health in KZN did not comment at the time of publication.