Corpse mix-up causes double trauma for KaNyamazane family
On arrival, the family was told that they could not exhume him, because they needed a court order.
A family of KaNyamazane is distressed after finding out that a funeral parlour in Mbombela had mistakenly given their loved one to another family.
On Thursday morning, Alfred Mashego’s family was shocked to learn that Pfunani Funeral Services had given his corpse to a family from Matsulu.
On arrival at the funeral services, the family had planned to collect his corpse and immediately start the funeral proceedings. Lerato Mashego, a family member, said she is really disappointed by the service they were receiving from the funeral service company.
“We travelled from home last night after they had called us saying we owed an outstanding amount of about R8 000. This shocked us so much that we dropped everything. When we got to the funeral parlour, Alfred Ngwenya, the owner, refused to see us. This morning, after solving the matter, we learned that our grandfather was laid to rest by another family, the Ndlovus,” she explained.
After this discovery, the funeral parlour told the family to join them to go to Matsulu to collect their loved one. On arrival, the family was told that they could not exhume him, because they needed a court order.
Mpumalanga News contacted Ngwenya and he confirmed the mix-up. “The other family took the wrong corpse and we are solving the matter,” he said. A member of the Ndlovu family confirmed that they were given the wrong corpse; they did not collect the corpse, it was delivered to them by the funeral service.
“We asked the funeral service if they were sure they had the right person, and they said yes. We unfortunately could not confirm this, because at that time, we did not have electricity,” she said. The newspaper contacted the South African Funeral Practitioners Association (Safpa) and it investigated the matter.
JJ Sanderson, the chairperson of Safpa Mpumalanga, said, “We have contacted Pfunani Funeral Services and Ngwenya said he was currently resolving the matter. As per the law he has to follow a set procedure which includes a court order and contacting the police.”
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On Thursday afternoon, the Mashego family was still waiting to receive their grandfather’s corpse. The Ndlovu family received their loved one and buried him.
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