Mortuary bodies ‘piling up’

Health Department denies union reports of rotting corpses

THE closure of Magwaza Maphalala (Gale) Street Mortuary has left Park Rynie Mortuary with an excess of bodies and nowhere to store them – and apparently some are infested with maggots.

The Public Allied Workers Union of SA (Pawusa) has said they reported these issues to the mortuary management and the Department of Health, with no response, but the department has denied these claims.

However, yesterday Linda Hlongwa-madlala, chairperson of the human settlements portfolio committee and member of the legislature’s health portfolio committee, told the Daily News that the health portfolio committee would be conducting their own investigation and the department would be expected to also submit their report to the committee.

Initially, the closure of Gale Street Mortuary in March meant that Phoenix Mortuary would take over the services because it could accommodate 500 bodies. However, services have been distributed to three mortuaries – Park Rynie, Pinetown and Phoenix.

Pawusa provincial secretary Sifiso Ngidi said bodies started piling up last week. “Employees reported that a number of bodies had started to rot, that the body count was increasing and that they’d asked for assistance. They got in touch with management at the site and they said they would speak to their bosses, but there hasn’t been a response.

“This led to them coming to me and asking me to speak to the department. I raised the issue with the department, saying there was a challenge with storage and employees were asking for assistance, but the department has not responded,” said Ngidi.

He said bodies continued to pile up, they were not stored properly and the department still had not responded.

The Daily News has a copy of the letter that the union sent to the department.

Ngidi said about six bodies were currently kept on the floor.

“Bodies that have been there for long have to be kept frozen, so they don’t smell or rot more. Bodies that should be in freezers are the ones that do not have space,” said Ngidi.

The mortuary could take 300 bodies, he said.

“What’s happening at Park Rynie shows that the department is more focused on Covid-19 and not attending to other critical issues,” said Ngidi.

However, Health Department spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said the department rejected the allegations as false.

Maphisa said the mortuary had an excess of 50 available spaces to admit bodies, as of Monday. “It was misinformation of the highest order to allege that the facility had reached full capacity.”

He said the challenge pertained to the number of bodies awaiting burial and that the department had completed the necessary processes to facilitate burial of those bodies.

“However, investigative processes within the domain of SAPS have not yet been concluded, and are ongoing. The department’s Forensic Pathology Services unit forms part of a broader team that investigates medico-legal deaths, which is led by SAPS. Burial of these bodies is expected to commence soon, once the SAPS indicates that they have finalised the requisite processes.

“It is, therefore, grossly incorrect to allege that bodies are ‘rotting and there are maggots’. There are no bodies that fit this description. Any claims to the contrary can only be the work of people with malicious intentions,” said Maphisa.

Hlongwa-madlala said they were unaware of what was happening at the mortuary but they would await information from the department.

“For now we will request the Speaker to allow the administration of the health portfolio committee to conduct a due diligence investigation so that we can have our own findings, and the department will be requested to provide the portfolio committee with a report. We have a meeting scheduled for Thursday and we would like to believe the department can report to us in that meeting,”

said Hlongwa-madlala.

She said they were fully aware of the shortcomings in the department’s forensic pathology business unit. “There were outstanding issues, ranging from labour-related matters and issues of capacity. The shortfalls that pop up every now and then act as a threat to the stability of the business.”