Family buries wrong body
Second household now faces long wait to have loved one’s remains exhumed
immediately alerted hospital staff that the body was not his nephew. “I told them that they showed me the wrong body and demanded to know what had happened to my nephew’s body,” he said.
Mahlangu said at first staff members thought he was mistaken but it was later confirmed that there was a mixup when the other family was called in.
“I want to know how they gave my nephew to the wrong people to bury. How did that family go ahead and bury my nephew? I want answers,” he said.
Mahlangu said they had been waiting for over two weeks for the problem to be resolved and the issue was taking its toll on the family.
“I now have to bury my nephew because his mother is unable to afford the funeral. We are ready to lay him to rest but how can we do that when he is lying all the way there in Pankop? This is troubling me. I can’t even sleep at night,” he said.
When reached for comment yesterday, the family who had mistakenly buried Simon, declined to respond to Sowetan’s questions.
Spokesperson at the provincial health department, Dumisane Malamule, said they would comment on the specific case after getting all the facts. However, he said if a family believed that their relative’s body has been given to the wrong people they must approach the South African Police Service to compile a written affidavit.
Malamule said once the process was completed with the police, the family must approach the provincial health department so that the exhumation order can be finalised. He said once everything was done, it should take less than a month for the body to be exhumed and given to the correct family.
Johan Rousseau, the chairperson of the Funeral Industry Reformed Association, said such incidents happen in SA all the time due to negligence and the fact that the industry was not properly regulated. Rousseau said this was unfortunate as grieving families were exposed to more trauma after losing their loved ones.
He said both the families in this case should receive counselling while government must foot the bill for the exhumation.