Johannesburg - Workington Chivige barely has time to enjoy his morning cup of coffee at his Vrededorp offices, when he has to rush to Lanseria Airport.
He has to pick up the body of an Indian national who died on a flight from India to South Africa.
The 32-year-old arrives at the airport, and drives his van on to the runway.
The body is in a body bag ready for collection. He rushes back to his offices where he has a long day ahead of him.
Chivige is a professional embalmer. His job also entails the transportation of bodies, assisting with post-mortems, dressing bodies and conducting funerals.
He has been at Thom Kight funeral directors for nine years. They operate locally and internationally
When Chivige gets back to his offices, he takes the body to the mortuary section to tag it.
His next task is to assist a forensic pathologist with a post mortem of an Australian woman who died in Mozambique.
He has fetched the body from the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown.
At the hospital he puts on a blue overall, a mask, surgical gloves and white gumboots as he prepares to open up the body.
Having worked with bodies for some 10 years, Chivige says he isn’t squeamish.
“I can eat my lunch as soon as I am done cutting.”
Chivige cuts the deceased and prepares her organs for the pathologist to analyse.
“Conducting a second post mortem isn’t easy because the organs have already been tampered with,” he says.
After nearly two hours, Chivige leaves the room.
He reveals: “We suspect she may have been murdered. The doctor picked up a few things.”
After washing off and removing his overall, Chivige starts the embalming process. It’s the body of a Swaziland princess. It must be ready for the undertakers that afternoon and the procedure takes 40 minutes.
“They want to bury her tomorrow so I need to make sure I get everything done in time. Embalming preserves the body so it doesn’t go bad’ before burial or cremation.
“We inject embalming fluid in the neck and main artery. We make a small incision and then pump the fluid into the body.”
Chivige was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to South Africa in 2002. He trained with the National Funeral Directors of Southern Africa.
“After school I started looking for a job. I came across an advert looking for people to work in the funeral business and I have been in the industry since.”
Chivige admits his first few days were incredibly tough.
“On my first job I had to pick up the body of a man at his house. When I arrived he was lying on a mattress. As I picked him up, some air was released from his body, I got so freaked out I almost dropped him.”
Chivige says his job may seem gruesome, but someone has to do it. “Some people are scared and don’t want to be close to dead people. I do it because someone has to do it. You can’t leave dead people to rot. They need to be buried and respected.”
After preparing the Swaziland princess, Chivige embalms a body from another high society family. This time it’s the Angolan president’s eldest brother, who died in South Africa this week.
“We see all sorts of people, many famous people through these doors. But everyone is treated the same here, with the utmost respect.”
Chivige, a father of three, says the most difficult part of his job is handling the bodies of kids. “That never gets easy,” says Chivige.
“It always pains me. These children never got the chance to go to school or to fulfil their dreams. It’s very heartbreaking.”
After completing his second embalming, Chivige is done for the day. He heads home to Brixton where he will take a shower and unwind before hitting the pool tables with some good friends.
Saturday Star