Buried after 579 days
AFTER 579 days of being kept in the mortuary of a funeral home, Pastor Siva Moodley was buried at the Westpark Cemetery in Randburg last Thursday.
Moodley, 53, the founder of The Miracle Centre in the north of Johannesburg, died on August 15, 2021, after falling ill. Since then, his body has been kept at Martin’s Funeral Home in Fourways, Gauteng.
In a previous interview with POST, Martin du Toit, the manager at the funeral home, said that shortly after his death, Moodley’s family and members of the church would visit the funeral home to pray for his resurrection.
“The last visit was in September 2021. Nobody has come to view the body since,” he said.
Du Toit lodged an application in the South Gauteng High Court last year to grant him permission to have Moodley buried or cremated.
Ryan Brown, the insurance and claims manager for the funeral home, said the court granted an order for him to be buried or cremated earlier this month.
“The court gave his family an opportunity to respond to the ruling, and when they failed to do so, we were given the go ahead to perform the burial. We did the burial on Thursday at the Westpark Cemetery.”
Since Moodley’s death and burial, services at the church have continued and are led by his wife, Jessie; son, David and daughter, Kathryn Jade. The services are also live-streamed on social media.
The church has allegedly not openly acknowledged his death on social media or informed the congregation of his whereabouts. His social media accounts, notably Facebook and Twitter, are operational, and messages are posted every day as if they are from him.
Moodley has an international following and had a television programme called Your Miracle Moment. The programme was broadcast on DStv through the FaithTV and TBN Africa channels.
Re-runs of the programme were being broadcast on Miracle TV+, a streaming service. New episodes of the programme only feature Jessie and David.
His website described Moodley as an apostle, author, international speaker and radio and TV personality.
It is also claimed that Moodley made those who were blind see and gave hearing to some who were deaf. There are also claims that he healed people who were ill.
Despite calls, emails and messages on social media for comment, Moodley’s family has not responded.