The Pheko family in the Free State finally buried their son and brother last week after waiting three months for an autopsy to be carried out, as there only two centres able to do autopsies in the entire province.
“My brother’s body was found in December and an autopsy was only done on 6 March. It breaks our hearts that we had to wait so long,” Ramorena Pheko told Molefi Sompane from Health-e News.
Meanwhile, the Kanono family – from Thaba Nchu – have been waiting for almost three weeks to know their son’s cause of death. Thembani Kanono is yet to be buried because an autopsy still hasn’t been done.
“We’ve been waiting since mid-February,” said Thabani Kanono.
The Free State Department of Health said the backlog was due to the closure of the government mortuary in Bloemfontein, and that all post-mortems were currently being done at the Botshabelo and Welkom facilities.
The Bloemfontein morgue was closed in October after the Department of Labour identified serious infrastructure failures. The closure was meant to be temporary while the department fixed the issues raised.
However, at this stage, it’s not clear when the facility will reopen.
Bad for business
Undertakers are starting to feel the pinch and frustrations are building up, with the owner of a reputable funeral home in Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu accusing staff of delaying autopsies on purpose.
“They are prioritising bodies from only one company …we were not told when the three bodies we brought for autopsy last week will be released,” he said.
The Botshabelo mortuary has denied the accusations, with a pathologist saying they were working overtime daily to end the backlog.
“We work on schedule and according to checklists. We are catering for the entire province, but are unable to keep up because people die daily and autopsies are required daily. Our people should force the government to build more centres in the province so they don’t have to rely on just two centres,” he said.
In a statement, the Health department said it was “committed to resolving challenges highlighted by the Labour department”.
“We understand that this situation has significant implications, not only affecting the operations of funeral parlours but also causing distress for families during an already challenging time.
“The department is actively working to … restore operations as soon as possible.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Bloemfontein morgue closed for health, safety reasons
Failing SA mortuaries ‘smell like 10 dead cows’
Unclaimed body count in state mortuaries tops 3 000