Shameful how we bury poor

South Africans were shocked when a local funeral parlour carrying 42 bodies in a rickety trailer lost its load to expose the indignity of how we bury the poor.

In broad daylight, the trailer not even fit to transport animals was stuck on the highway and obstructed traffic for up to six hours. Of the 42 bodies, 26 were of stillborn children.

Ironically, it was the indignity heaped on the dead that later resulted in health officials attending the sendoff of the paupers, possibly in their bid to manage the dented reputation of the health department’s mishandling of the dead.

Digging deep into the macabre incident, Sowetan unearthed the fact that at R1 197 to bury an adult body and R513 to bury the remains of a child, there is no place for dignity when it comes to the nameless and faceless people who die as paupers. The paltry fee was also blamed for the undertaker’s decision to cut corners and opt for the trailer to transport corpses instead of a closed truck.

At the Olifantsvlei Cemetery when the paupers were buried, only 14 graves were used to cram the bodies in mass burials.

With dictates of culture against such burials, clearly the poor are not afforded the same consideration.

The incident happens as South Africans are spellbound by the powerful and sad testimonies coming out of the shameful Esidimeni hearings that are trying to establish culpability in the deaths of more than 100 mental patients.

In the hearings, suspended health boss Dr Makgabo Manamela is evasive and refuses to be accountable for actions that led to these deaths.

Just like the Esidimeni tragedy, the episode of the corpses that blocked the highway is another disgraceful one that indicates a deeper issue of deplorable service delivery in the health sector.

This results in millions of rands being paid out regularly on malpractice and negligence cases.

It is a sad state of affairs when even the dead cannot be afforded the basic respect they deserve. How we treat our dead should be indicative of our deep sense of humanity as a civilised nation that should inspire our hope for the living.