Widow wins bid for second burial

A DURBAN widow who says her husband was not buried in accordance with his wishes, has won a court bid to have his remains exhumed so that a second funeral can be held.

Judge Dhaya Pillay on Monday granted Susan Matumela Thuleli permission to disinter the body of her husband, Lalaza Russell Dlamini, and to rebury him.

After Dlamini died last month, Thuleli, of uMlazi, obtained an urgent interdict in the Durban High Court, restraining her step children Ntombi Cele and Nhlanhla Dlamini from proceeding with plans to bury him.

She said in court papers that neither she nor her husband’s family from Vryheid had been consulted in accordance with Zulu customs about the burial.

Despite the order, Dlamini’s children went ahead and held a funeral and buried their father just a day after the court had ruled.

Thuleli then brought another application, to have her husband’s remains exhumed.

In her court papers, she said that while she had been separated from Dlamini, before his death they had been trying to “repair” their relationship.

Thuleli said that Dlamini’s parents were buried in Vryheid.

“During the course of our marriage, Dlamini had always advised me that he wanted to be buried with his family in Vryheid,” she said.

She said if he was not buried in accordance with his wishes, it could have “severe ritual consequences”. Dlamini’s children filed a notice of motion to oppose the court bid to exhume the body, but when the matter came before the court on Monday, they had not done so.

Judge Pillay then granted an order, taken by consent, to allow for the exhumation.

Although last month the court heard that further court action was being considered regarding the children being in contempt of the court’s initial ruling, it is understood that Thuleli decided not to take that matter further.

Thuleli and Dlamini were married for five years.

Dlamini died at their home on the evening of February 1, but Thuleli was not staying there at the time.

She said she was only informed of her husband’s death by her niece, two days later.