A BULAWAYO family suffered double trauma when Falakhe
Funeral Services delayed delivering the body of their relative who died in
South Africa by over 20 hours before eventually giving them a wrong body for
burial.
The Ncube family had expected to bury Mthokozisi Ncube
(37), who died of kidney failure on May 3, as soon as they received his body.
The arrangement was in line with Covid-19 regulations that repatriated bodies
should all be treated as if they are contaminated.
After failing to deliver the body, parlour officials
suddenly became unreachable on their phones.
The family was frantic with worry and endured a sleepless
night where they imagined all scenarios that could have caused the funeral
parlour to disappear without notice. Yesterday morning the parlour called the
family to collect the body and grief-stricken members said they suffered a
“cruel blow” when they were shown the body of an “old man” who was a stranger
to them.
The family paid Falakhe Funeral Parlour about R11 000 to
bring the body into the country for burial.
Pouring out the family’s harrowing ordeal to Chronicle
yesterday at Athlone Cemetery where Ncube was eventually buried after the
mix-up was cleared, family spokesperson Mr Mfaniselwa Mpofu said the parlour
had exposed them to unimaginable distress.
“We spent the whole of yesterday (Wednesday) waiting for my
nephew’s body as we were told he would arrive by 11AM. We waited but his body
didn’t arrive as expected and upon inquiring, officials at Falakhe told us
there were delays at the border,” he said.
“They promised us that the body would be in Bulawayo by 3PM
which also did not happen. We tried reaching the parlour after 3PM and they
went silent on us, their phones were not going through. We spent a sleepless
night without any communication,” said the disgruntled Mr Mpofu.
According to Mr Mpofu, the body arrived during the wee
hours of yesterday morning and the family was only contacted around 8AM.
“We went to Falakhe and we were shown a coffin which was
supposedly carrying Mthoko’s body. Our daughter-in-law back in South Africa had
sent us pictures of the coffin and the one we were shown looked different. This
prompted us to ask to at least see his face before proceeding to bury him,” he
added.
Mr Mpofu said Falakhe officials were rude and refused to
open the coffin claiming that it was sealed and could not be opened for any
reason.
“We had accepted that due to Covid-19 we could not conduct
a body viewing service but at least one of us had to ensure it was indeed
Mthoko before we could bury him.
“After a struggle, they opened the coffin and we
immediately thought something was amiss because the face of the body was
covered with a piece of cloth. When it was removed, we saw an old man that we had never
seen before.” said Mr Mpofu.
He said emotions of family members that had been
overstretched reached boiling point.
Mr Mpofu said there was an exchange of harsh words between
the family and Falakhe officials who claimed there could have been a mix up as
they had brought two corpses from South Africa at the same time.
They claimed the body the family had seen was in transit to
Kezi in Matabeleland South.
“About three hours later, they told us they had Mthoko’s
body. That is when we did paper work and proceeded to Athlone where he is now
being buried,” he said.
Mr Mpofu said the family was still traumatised and
disappointed in Falakhe. “Falakhe is one of the oldest funeral parlours we have
and we expected better from them. We hope that one day we will heal from the
trauma they brought upon the family which was worsened by the fact that
Mthoko’s wife and son could not attend his burial due to Covid-19 conditions.”
Contacted for comment, an official from Falakhe Funeral
Parlour, Mr Eugene Ncube, said the company had acted on Government’s directive
in refusing to let the family open the coffin.
He referred this reporter to the Ministry of Health and
Child Care and refused to comment on what would have happened if the Ncube
family had buried the wrong body. “We dealt with the person who paid for the
policy and explained to them so I do not know where these allegations are
coming from. This whole issue is because the permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Health and Child Care wrote a letter banning us from conducting
body viewing programmes or even opening coffins from outside the country,” said
Mr Ncube.
“This policy is affecting us as a business as families are
always questioning our stance. However, these allegations are false.We told the
family there were delays at the border and they cannot accuse us of anything,
we are simply following instructions laid out in the letter from the Ministry.”
Chronicle
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