If you die from unnatural causes anywhere within the main highways which border the south of Johannesburg, your body will be taken to the mortuary in Braamfontein.
It is a seedy place and lies in the shadows of Hillbrow and Yeoville on Hospital Street.
It doesn’t matter where you live and what your financial status or standing in society is. If you die within the Joburg Forensic Pathology Service (FPS) Medico Legal Mortuary jurisdiction, you will end up there.
Death is hard for those left behind. In the case of this particular building, families face the horror of death, the mental suffering from the loss, and those identifying loved ones at the mortuary are confronted, almost as soon as they see the building, with the foul stench of death.
It is the cloying smell of decomposing bodies. There is always an odour at these facilities, but this is different. The smell sticks to your hair and clothing and the sulphurous gas travels home with grieving families.
This horrific reminder of death occurs within this building because the Johannesburg FPS was not built for this purpose, and its ageing equipment is in dire need of upgrades. The ventilation and ozone generators, which deodorise and sanitise the air, have not worked for years.
As bad as the inside is, the outside is not much better.
The facility was built in 1921 as the “non-European” branch of the Johannesburg Hospital. This was in line with the policies of the apartheid government which did not allow races to interact. As part of the policy the surrounding buildings were also used in this manner.
The buildings are derelict and have become home to vagrants who wander around the FPS facility and have recently been caught in the grounds at night. The old Florence Nightingale nursing home across the road has been hijacked.
Visitors to the mortuary must also compete with an informal scrap yard and car repair workshop which has taken over the base of the Old Florence building, spilling across the street.
On Fridays the workshop blasts music from midday.
When TimesLIVE visited on Tuesday, families were standing outside the mortuary for fresh air. Some could be seen covering their noses. Those in mourning need to inquire about their loved ones and wait to be called to make an identification. The environment is unsafe and unhealthy.
According to the former head of forensic medicine and pathology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Jeanine Vellema, people have been complaining about the smell for years.
She said the health and safety of those who enter the building is at risk because the building has been condemned.
There is often no water and electricity in the building.
Vellema retired this year and Dr Shakeera Holland took over in March.
The FPS is a teaching facility with Wits students and academics working and training upstairs and Gauteng health department staff working in the mortuary on the ground floor.
There are few walls between the autopsy rooms and families who come to identify their loved ones.
New facility 'won’t be ready in 2023'
Holland said the facility was set to move to a state-of-the-art building at the Helen Joseph Hospital grounds in 2019, but this was thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said South Gauteng was the "coalface of Forensic Medicine, where we see approximately 23% of the estimated 70,000 unnatural deaths per year in SA".
"The Johannesburg FPS facility is one of the largest and busiest facilities in South Gauteng. Yet it is housed in an old condemned, decrepit building, which is rat-infested and there have been numerous breakdowns of vital and necessary infrastructure. This seriously hampers service delivery, teaching and training."
She said whilst staff waited for the relocation they were forced to "endure deplorable" working conditions.
"This impacts negatively on service delivery, teaching and training. The staff are working in unsafe conditions and the morale of the staff is low as they are constantly in an extremely unpleasant and unsavoury work environment.
"The only solution is that the Joburg FPS must be moved to the new facility as a matter of urgency."
January 2023 is the new move date, but there are doubts about when the move will take place.
DA Gauteng shadow MEC for health Jack Bloom said the new building was 71% completed despite groundbreaking in November 2016. He said the budget was R588m but there had been issues about payments to contractors.
When TimesLIVE visited the hospital grounds last week, construction was evident but few contractors were working .
A security guard said he believed the hospital would be ready in 2030. “It certainly won’t be ready in 2023,” he said.
“Meanwhile, staff must work in a condemned building,” Vellema said.
She said people coming to view bodies complain about the smell.
“Some bodies arrive in a decomposing state, or we pick them up like that. We can’t control that. The ozone generator has not worked for seven years. It makes a huge difference.
“Ventilation in the building isn’t appropriate and also hasn’t worked in years. To contain odours we sometimes freeze decomposing bodies, but the freezer has not worked for the past seven years.”
Vellema said electrical equipment frequently breaks down because poor pest control has led to rats eating through electrical cables. This was corroborated by several workers in the building.
She spoke about other irregularities, including downdraft autopsy tables where the downdraft system has never worked.
The environment is not conducive for identifying loved ones and my heart breaks when I hear families have to go there
— Jeanine Vellema, former head of forensic medicine and pathology at Wits
She said the person in charge of the facility could do nothing to fix the issues if the health department doesn’t come to the party.
“Sometimes they come and paint. I don’t care about peeling paint. I care that people can’t breathe.”
She said for fresh air, technicians had a few air-conditioning units “from hotels” and a few windows to open, “but then the sound of blaring music [from squatters and the mechanic in nearby hijacked buildings] surrounds the devastated families”.
Vellema motivated for the new laboratory in 2014. She also designed and costed the project.
“When I first motivated for the new laboratory [in 2010], we already saw the decay at the old lab. The environment is not conducive for identifying loved ones and my heart breaks when I hear families have to go there.
“Why is the new facility not progressing at pace?”
One feature in the new building is a viewing passage that uses glass to separate police from the autopsy room. “Police are supposed to go to autopsies. Part of the reason they don’t is the smell. The viewing passage allows the investigating officer to interact with the pathologist. It is also useful for training purposes.”
Vellema said the new building also had empathetic viewing rooms for families.
One of her main concerns was the specification for technology she ordered for the new lab. She and other pathologists were concerned that because so much time had elapsed since the specs were submitted, the technology was now outdated.
She and others claimed to have contacted the health department about this issue but have not received responses.
The new building was designed in 2014 and construction started in 2016.
“In November 2019 I went on the first walkabout. It was very bare bones. I asked for another walkabout in 2020 but then Covid-19 hit. In 2021 there was still nothing happening,” said Vellema
“Every week they delay makes the project more expensive.”
She said the extra expenses could eat into the equipment budget.
Bloom was scathing in his assessment of the situation.
“This is a massive project and it is costing lots. The building is supposed to represent the Hillbrow FPS, but then it was decided it would become a head office and the project expanded. It is another fail by the health department and the Gauteng department of infrastructure and development. They never got the specs right and completely botched the project. There is doubt it will open in the near future. It's pathetic.”
TimesLIVE has reached out to the Gauteng health department and head of infrastructure for comment on the story. They did not meet a deadline extended by a week.
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