Staff at several Eastern Cape state-run mortuaries claim the facilities are so dysfunctional that unclaimed bodies are piled up on the floor in cold storage rooms and staff meant to transport, clean and check bodies are instead assisting doctors in postmortems.
Staff at the state morgue in Mthatha, responsible for fetching and preparing bodies from crime and accident scenes for examination, said that at the Mthatha Forensic Pathology Services laboratory they sometimes had to use rudimentary tools to conduct surgical jobs which they were not qualified to perform.
The provincial health department has dismissed the claims.
The Dispatch team has seen photographs of facilities at this mortuary showing bodies haphazardly piled in storage rooms with blackened floors.
Pathology officers also claimed there were more than 300 corpses, including skeletal remains and foetuses, stored at the morgue, some of which they say had lain unclaimed for up to five years.
At least three forensic pathology officers, who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity, said department funding was part of the problem and they had last received their overtime pay in November 2023.
A forensic pathology officer in one of the towns in the Alfred Nzo district claimed there were sometimes no gloves to wear or bags to hold bodies.
He said in the state morgue in which he works, the fridge used to store bodies had broken down more than two months ago and had yet to be fixed.
There were about 60 uncollected bodies lying in the morgue and the building was overwhelmed by the rancid stench.
A Buffalo City mortuary officer claimed employees had inadequate equipment, fridges often broke down and staff were owed for overtime.
Staff also claimed the vehicles needed to perform their duties were not roadworthy.
A woman officer said: “If you have a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere, you have to wait for someone to drive from Mthatha with a spare.”
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Postmortems were sometimes performed when there were water outages. If the officers declined to conduct postmortems under such conditions they were allegedly charged with insubordination.
Clerks who received salaries for administrative work also received overtime allowances for accompanying forensic pathology officers when they went to fetch corpses.
Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth’s spokesperson, Mkhululi Ndamase, dismissed the claims.
He said those who did not exceed the permitted number of overtime hours had been paid in December. He said there was only last month's overtime outstanding.
Some officials had exceeded their hours when claiming for overtime.
He said their revised request for this overtime was on the verge of being approved.
Forensic pathology officers also had a standby rotation roster for a period of a week or a month.
“Unlike pathology officers and, for the purpose of accelerating service delivery as an essential services institution, managers were mandated to make themselves available on standby 24/7 to attend to provincial instructions and to assist and guide forensic pathology officers on standby when required after normal working hours, weekends and public holidays,” Ndamase said.
He said that in April 2021, 43 new 4x4 Toyota Hilux bakkies had been distributed, with 11 sent to Mthatha.
An additional three Navarra 4x4 bakkies were sent to the region in December.
More spare wheels had been ordered.
Ndamase said clerks only assisted outside normal working hours, weekends and public holidays to provide manpower for the lifting of bodies from a scene and they were paid overtime, just as forensic pathology officers were.
He also dismissed claims that forensic pathology officers were forced to perform postmortems, saying the Mthatha forensic pathology lab had three doctors.
“This function is only mandated to doctors who have MBChB qualifications or forensic pathologists with MBChBs and speciality qualifications.”
Ndamase admitted to water challenges but insisted all facilities had been fitted with backup water tanks and pumps. The Mthatha morgue tank and pump system had been faulty but he said it was repaired.
He said there were 154 unclaimed bodies at the Mthatha morgue, with 106 of these reported to municipalities for burial.
Ndamase said the Eastern Cape had a total of 485 unclaimed bodies in morgues across the province.
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