Durban - The Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal has reassured families that bodies of their loved ones will be ready for burials this weekend.
MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, said this was in the case where autopsies had to be undertaken and following on from go-slow by employees at the Fort Napier Medico-Legal Mortuary.
He said a meeting was conducted between leadership at the department and provincial SAPS at which a contingency plan was set up.
Dhlomo said that the department has been receiving calls from the public, members of the royal household, MPs and MPLs, religious leaders – all of whom were enquiring whether burials will take place this weekend. He has allayed their fears and expressed his confidence that burials will take place.
“We want to indicate our gratitude to the SAPS for the support they’ve given to us. We have had a meeting with them, and that meeting is going to result in us being able to say that all those who had plans to bury their loved ones will be able to do so. We are going to do everything humanly possible, assisted by the SAPS to do all post-mortems. We request relatives of the deceased to go and collect bodies on Friday. But if, for some reason, there are a few cases where we may not be able to complete the autopsy on Friday, we’ll be able to complete those on Saturday morning," he said.
Dhlomo urged families with any enquiries to please call the KZN Health Provincial Operations Centre on Toll Free: 0800 005 133. They will be requested to leave their details, and will be contacted and given an update.