R1million bill for body kept in Ladysmith morgue for four years

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Durban - A woman who was kept in a private morgue in Ladysmith for more than four years will be buried once the police have ­established the cause of death. It cost more than R1 million to preserve the body over these years, according to funeral parlour owner Siphiwo Mchunu. He said he was informed of the body by the unidentified woman’s boyfriend on April 19, 2014. “At the time the man told me that he had reported the death to the police and was told to take it to a private morgue. We fetched the body and there were no identification documents, but we kept it and informed the police so they could start with tests and issue a death certificate,” Mchunu said. A few weeks later the boyfriend was also reported dead by the caretaker of the building near which they had built their shack.

“That made it difficult to identify the woman or her next of kin. I contacted both uThukela District Municipality and the police, and none showed any interest in paying me for keeping the body. There have been numerous meetings on this matter but no agreement has been reached. In August 2014 the municipality asked for a quote, and by then the bill was R95000, and they would have none of it,” he said.

Mchunu said he’d had to administer certain injections to the body to keep it in “good shape”.

“It’s a relief that the body was finally taken away on Friday. I have engaged the services of a lawyer to claim the costs of keeping it from the municipality and the police. They should have taken the body to a state morgue in the first place, and not sent it to a private morgue,” he said.

News of the body came to public notice following the DA’s oversight visit to the Ladysmith morgue after a tip-off last week. The police then removed the body to a state facility.

DA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said they were appalled to learn that the relevant authorities had failed to process the woman’s burial.

Mncwango said it was sad that the woman’s family would not have an opportunity to lay her to rest.

uThukela District spokesperson Jabulani Mkhonza said the municipality was waiting for the police to finish tests to ascertain the cause of death.

He said the municipality only spent R1500 on pauper’s burials.

“That will happen once the police have identified the cause of death. As for the costs of keeping the body in the morgue, the municipality doesn’t get involved,” Mkhonza said.

When told that Mchunu had engaged lawyers to claim for keeping and preserving the body, Mkhonza said they had not yet been served with papers.

Daily News