DURBAN - Mortuary workers in KwaZulu-Natal are expected to down tools from Thursday as a province-wide strike kicks in.
“It’s unfortunate that people will be affected by the strike, but the Department of Health has forced our hand,” said Sifiso Dlamini, the Public Service and Allied Workers Union spokesperson, who confirmed the province-wide strike on Wednesday.
“The department will just have to find a way to ensure that services continue,” he said.
Today's strike is the culmination of a series of strikes that have been sporadically occurring around the province this year, resulting in the Health MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, conducting post-mortems himself last month.
Dlamini said the strike was a result of their grievances being ignored by the Department of Health.
“We sent a memorandum to the department last month and we never received any responses from them.
"We sent another memorandum this month and we still did not get a response,” Dlamini said.
Chief among their grievances is that they are expected to work 160 hours a month, but say that they end up working up to 190 hours.
“There are also roster issues. The workers are sometimes called on their days off and told to work half days. But they do not get compensated for sacrificing their personal time.
“There is also the question of danger pay allowance. We found out that our colleagues in Mpumalanga get a danger pay allowance and we do not.
"Some of the workers have to fetch bodies that have been mutilated and this is deeply traumatising for them.”
Among the people affected by the recent strikes are the family of Lindani Mabuyakhulu, 32, who died after allegedly being assaulted by a community in the Siphosethu area near Jozini.
“We heard about my nephew’s death at about 6am on Sunday and went to the scene where he died.
"We waited until 2.30pm for the mortuary van to arrive, but it never did," said Mabuyakhulu’s uncle, Philani Mabuyakhulu.
“We called the police and they tried to contact the person who operated the mortuary van. They called him until he switched off his phone,” he said.
Philani took the body to the mortuary in Jozini, 60km away.
“I called the police station and asked them if I could take my nephew’s body to the mortuary in my car.”
The police agreed and accompanied them.
“What hurt me the most was how humiliating and undignified it was for the family to have to stay with my nephew’s body for so long. They have been traumatised and they need counselling.”
Philani said he was seeking legal advice on what steps he could take against the people responsible for the family’s humiliation.
Mabuyakhulu leaves behind two children.
Philani described his nephew as a “normal boy”.
“He enjoyed spending time with his friends.”
However, it was during this time with his friends that he was killed.
“From what we saw it seems he was dragged by a car because there was sand all over his body. He also had marks that looked like he had been beaten with a stick.
“But we will have to wait for a post-mortem to officially find out what the cause of death was. We hope the police find his killers,” Philani said.
Colonel Thembeka Mbhele, provincial police spokesperson, confirmed the incident.
“According to Ingwavuma police, the family requested the police grant them permission to transport the body since it was at the scene from morning, and it was already past midday.
"The mortuary van had not arrived because of the ongoing strike by Department of Health workers at the mortuary.”
Mbhele said a case of murder was opened and no arrests had been made yet.
Sam Mkhwanazi, provincial Health spokesperson, said they were aware of the allegations.
“The district management will arrange a meeting with the family allegedly affected by the non-service delivery, to gather facts. This will enable the district management to investigate the matter.”
Mkhwanazi said the department would not comment on the strike.