MEC does post-mortems to spare grieving Durban family
KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo went the extra mile yesterday so the funeral of a Chatsworth mother and son could go ahead as planned.
With mortuary workers on a go-slow and bodies piling up at KZN’S provincial mortuaries because of delayed postmortems, Kogie Reddy and her family feared more misery.
Nearly two weeks ago, her paraplegic mother, Thanalatchmee Durugan, 68, and her brother, Segaren Pillay, 46, were reported missing.
Durugan’s body was retrieved from Silverglen Nature Reserve dam on Monday and on Thursday, her brother’s badly decomposing body was found in nearby bushes.
“The past 11 days have been filled with anguish and heartache for me and my family. All we wanted was closure, so that we could put an end to this painful chapter in our lives.
“We were concerned that the funerals wouldn’t go ahead as we planned, until MEC Dhlomo intervened.
“I take my hat off to him for what he has done for us,” said Reddy.
Community activist Rocky Naidoo and others had offered support to Reddy and her family throughout their ordeal.
“On Friday, we asked officials at the Pinetown mortuary if they could perform the post-mortems in time for the funeral.
“They said it was not possible because they had no staff qualified enough and it would only be done in the new week,” said Naidoo.
Yesterday, he approached Human Settlements MEC Ravi Pillay about assisting with the post-mortems.
Pillay then raised the family’s plight with Dhlomo, who was travelling to Port Shepstone, on the KZN south coast, at the time.
He set aside his other commitments to drive nearly 150km, and the Durugan and Pillay funerals went ahead.
“I had already done another postmortem for another family at the Pinetown mortuary at 7am, when I got the call to help Reddy’s family.”
Dhlomo said he had a programme for the day which needed his attention, but he made a U-turn. “The pain of the family was more important than my programme, it could wait.
“Their situation was desperate. I couldn’t allow the family to suffer any further because we in government haven’t made up our minds about when we would do the post-mortem,” said Dhlomo.
About the impasse over wage negotiations between his department and mortuary workers, that has rolled on for two weeks, Dhlomo said that they asked the national health department to help.
“Early next week we will make an announcement about other departments assisting us.
“We hope the workers will realise some of their demands are beyond our control.
“Our department got a warning letter from the Minister of Public Services and Administration to not commit to things beyond our capacity,” Dhlomo said.