Durban - The stench of decaying bodies at the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary has become unbearable for residents living nearby.
The mortuary is located in the vicinity of homes in Clayfield, and residents and children have to go past it to get to work and school. Bodies have been accumulating at the mortuary due to a nationwide backlog of DNA testing and forensic services.
Rodney Moses, 39, a resident, said: "The smell is awful. When you walk past the mortuary, you struggle to breathe. Children going to school and residents taking taxis to work or to the shops have to deal with the smell. It is also a grim feeling knowing there are bodies of people decomposing on the floor and the (mortuary) premises are near your home."
Moses said he had interacted with families who stood outside the mortuary waiting to collect the bodies of their loved ones for funerals.
"It is sad to hear that they are waiting for days to conduct funerals. They stand outside from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. Police vehicles are stationed at the mortuary to ensure no violence breaks out. These officers can be used to patrol Phoenix because crime is high in the community."
Dinesh Reddy, 52, said: "It is disgusting how the government is running the mortuary. This is another breakdown of service delivery in our country. The dead are supposed to be treated with dignity but they are treated like dirt. They are left to rot on the floor. The smell from the mortuary is terrible. My heart breaks for families who go there to get assistance."
Reddy said he had seen families wait outside the facility the entire day for help.
"Residents try to ease the wait by giving these families cooldrink and snacks."
Ayanda Zulu, the provincial secretary for the National Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), said the bodies were piling up as a result of the nationwide backlog of DNA testing and forensic service.
"Our members have complained that there are not enough fridges to store the bodies. There are bodies being kept on the floor. We have been told that some of the bodies are decomposing and causing a terrible smell. There are flies throughout the mortuary," said Zulu.
Zulu said the drains at the mortuary were also blocked.
"There are also not enough vehicles for staff to transport bodies. Staff also do not have masks and gloves or other protective gear. Two workers were suspended because they did not want to work. The environment was not safe."
He said the union complained to the Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal and they started cleaning the mortuary.
"The closure of the Gale Street Mortuary has placed the Phoenix Mortuary, Pinetown Mortuary and Park Rynie Mortuary under pressure because they are servicing most of Durban. The Phoenix Mortuary still has bodies of people who were killed during the unrest in July last year and the recent floods."
Zulu said the union would hand a memorandum to the department on Friday for more mortuaries to be built.
"This might ease the workload and reduce the backlog. We also want the department to employ more staff."
An employee at the mortuary, who declined to be named, said the conditions at the mortuary did not comply with occupational health and safety policies. The employee said there was no protective gear, like masks and gloves, for staff.
"This puts them at risk of contracting sicknesses. The infrastructure is not conducive to working. We have blocked drains and when we do autopsies, the area gets flooded. The air-conditioners are slow because they are not being serviced."
The employee said most of the fridges are not working.
"The smell of the decomposing bodies is unbearable. Some of the bodies are kept on the floor because the mortuary does not have the capacity to store them. We have more than 200 unclaimed bodies in the mortuary. Some people died during the unrest and others because of the floods earlier this year.
"When there are unclaimed bodies, the maximum time they are supposed to be stored is three months. Within these months, the police need to help with identifying who they are. If their families cannot be contacted, a paupers burial must be done but this is not happening."
The employee said the mortuary could accommodate about 2 300 bodies but it currently had more than 3 000 corpses.
"It is devastating to deal with families waiting for the bodies of their loved ones. This adds to their grief and heartache. We need the department to improve our working conditions so we can do our jobs properly."
Ntokozo Maphisa, the provincial spokesperson for the Department of Health, said they were aware of certain challenges pertaining to the functioning of the mortuary.
"We nevertheless wish to state categorically that the mortuary is not full. It is important to note that the field of forensic science suffers from numerous historical resource constraints; and that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health is not entirely responsible for the completion of all the autopsies of the bodies that are stored at its medico-legal mortuaries."
Maphisa said generally autopsies tend to differ in their nature and scope, depending on the circumstances under which a person had died, and as a result, required different kinds of intervention.
"While some autopsies may be completed with relative ease and released for burial, others require various forms of investigation which is outside the control of the department. There has, indeed, been an accumulation of bodies that are pending the finalisation of all the requisite forensic scientific investigations, which in itself is a complex and intensive process that is handled by the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory."
He said the situation at the Phoenix Mortuary was further exacerbated by fatalities from the social unrest in July 2021 as well as recent incidents of flooding.
"We do, however, wish to clarify that even in cases where there may be spatial challenges due to the accumulation of bodies, management of the mortuary has the prerogative to, at any point when it’s deemed necessary, move bodies to neighbouring medico-legal mortuaries."
He said these were the facilities that included Pinetown and the Magwaza Maphalala (ex-Gale) Street Mortuary.
Maphisa said there are no challenges with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or assistive devices, except for the occasional non-availability of certain sizes due to market forces.
"In cases where there may be a shortage, the material is sought accordingly from eThekwini district. A high-level team of officials recently conducted a thorough walkabout through the mortuary and also held a meeting with staff."
He said following the meeting, they resolved to source staff internally to assist with administrative and maintenance duties at the facility.
"The shortage of staff in certain categories was also identified and is receiving attention. We wish to assure the public that we are doing everything possible, within our constraints, to restore normal operations at the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary."
The Post