... only courageous relatives should be present – Hhansense
MBABANE – ‘Attending a post-mortem is for the courageous’. This is a statement that was made by Hhansense Dlamini, the Judicial Commissioner of the Eswatini Nation Court.
Dlamini is also a traditionalist, who was previously employed as a police officer. He was a police officer for 40 years. Noteworthy, Dlamini was also a police officer who worked closely with pathologists and attended several post-mortems during his career as an officer.
When he was asked on his views about emaSwati concerned about traumatic butchery-style sounds heard during post-mortems, he said he was fully aware of such. He said it was something he also witnessed during his years as a police officer.
However, Dlamini said, under normal circumstances, relatives always wanted to be at the post-mortems because they wanted to make sure that it was the correct body that was being examined. He said this also assisted police officers in identifying the body of the person.
Dlamini also warned that a post-mortem was very traumatic. He said not every person should be present. Traditionally, he said, blood relatives were not supposed to be present but distant relatives such as cousins or ‘aunts’ should.
He said sometimes, a pathologist could even ask a relative to help with something while doing the post-mortem.
“If they are examining the body of your son, you could be traumatised,” he said.
Dlamini emphasised that it was not appropriate for people who did not have courage to attend autopsies. Even if a person was elderly, he said, age should not be a qualification to go to the mortuary. He said it was convenient and safe to wait a distance from where the autopsy was conducted.
The judicial commissioner recalled how the sound of the power tools could be heard and this was often traumatic.