Shock as Durban woman receives a friend's ashes in a plastic packet

28 March 2017 - 14:40 By Shelley Seid and Bongani Mthethwa
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The ashes of Carla Britz-Borges's friend in the plastic packet they were delivered in.
The ashes of Carla Britz-Borges's friend in the plastic packet they were delivered in.
Image: CARLA BRITZ-BORGES

A Durban woman is distraught after receiving the cremated remains of her close friend in a supermarket packet.

Carla Britz-Borges took responsibility for ensuring that her friend‚ who she would prefer not to name‚ got a dignified send-off.

"I tried to trace her parents‚ and eventually I got hold of a half brother and a half sister who donated some money towards the cremation. The rest I borrowed from my father because I am unemployed‚" she said.

She asked Tony Naidoo at the Phoenix Funeral Service to give her the ashes in a baggie wrapped in cloth‚ and says he agreed to do this. She has planned to scatter the ashes on the South Coast. On Tuesday morning‚ a driver from the funeral home dropped off the ashes – in a Shoprite bag with a hole in it.

"The ashes were spilling from the plastic packet as I carried it in. I was flabbergasted. I’ve had dogs that were given a better send off. I had to deal with the entire process since her death and to get her back in a Shoprite bag was heartbreaking‚" she said.

Britz-Borges immediately posted a picture of the bag on Facebook. She paid the funeral home R5,200 for their services. Naidoo said Britz-Borges and her family‚ "wanted the ashes how they wanted" them because they had said they planned to dispose of them in the sea. "So I sent it to them. We put it in a plastic [bag] because they were disposing [them]‚" he said.

He denied that he was asked to wrap the ashes in a cloth. "No‚ she never asked me that. Because they were going to dispose of it‚ we put it into a packet. I did apologise to the woman about two hours ago‚" said Naidoo.

- TMG Digital/The Times

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