Cape mortuary backlog causing further anguish for grieving families

Shafiek Raban was on his way to the mosque when he was murdered. For his family dealing with his death was difficult‚ but so too was waiting for his body for six days. According to Muslim practices he should have been buried within hours.

They are not alone - many other families cannot bury their loved ones because of the heavy case load at Cape Town's Forensic Pathology Services. The situation at mortuaries in the Western Cape is so dire that the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) met with the Department of Health on Monday to enquire about prioritising Muslim bodies.

The organisation called the urgent meeting after receiving calls from Muslims who were "anxiously awaiting'' bodies due to delays in finalising post mortems.

According to Emergency Medical and Forensic Pathology Services spokesman Robert Daniels there has been a spike in deaths due to unnatural causes and this has led to an increase of post mortems.

MJC chairman of the Muslim Cemetery Board Shaykh Riad Fataar said: "I understand the morgue is backlogged and under significant strain due to the on-going violence in this community. We understand and acknowledge this but this has been a chronic problem for which the planning and resourcing have been inadequate.

“The Western Cape has been persistently labelled as one of the most violent provinces in the world and yet provincial government remained under-resourced. Alternative solutions must be sought.”

Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said she would raise the issue at the provincial legislature on Wednesday and request assistance with regards to staff and equipment.

Raban's mother-in-law‚ Zainub Ebrahim‚ said: “He was on his way to Mosque for the last prayer of the day. This past week has been very traumatic for us. His wife was traumatised by the wait. At the end we had to accept the wait because there was nothing we could do about it” said Ebrahim.

The father of three was finally buried on Monday. He was allegedly ambushed and shot in the head.

Ebrahim said her friend suffered a similar fate. The body of their deceased family member was released nine days later.

“Never in my life was it like this that people had to wait so long for the bodies‚'' she said.