KZN mortuaries in crisis: hundreds of bodies unclaimed for years

PAUPER STATEMENT'

- writes Dr Imran Keeka

THE writer raises concerns over the number of unclaimed bodies in KwaZulu-Natal mortuaries. I Independent Newspapers Archives

(Independent Newspapers Archives)

KZN mortuaries are storing hundreds of unclaimed bodies dating back to 2012, with some from the 2021 insurrection and 2022 floods still awaiting burial. This crisis reflects a systemic failure involving the KZN Department of Health, SAPS and municipalities, requiring urgent intervention to restore dignity to the deceased and provide closure for families

HUNDREDS of bodies lying unclaimed in mortuary freezers for more than a decade.

As of April, there are bodies in freezers at the Kokstad, Ixopo and Bulwer mortuaries dating as far back as 2012 and 2013. This is the sad reality of KwaZulu-Natal's mortuaries.

A May 2025 parliamentary reply from KZN Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane, to questions posed by the DA, further revealed that there were 980 bodies in storage across our province at that time - a figure that is not constant and fluctuates regularly.

Media reports, after the matter was raised during a KZN health portfolio committee, also suggested that the National Health Department's Dr Takadu Mamashela believes this figure has since dropped to around 600.

While not implausible, this claim appears unlikely and will need to be verified with KZN's Department of Health (DoH) at the next portfolio committee meeting.

This is particularly important after Simelane's own written response confirmed: "Statistics regarding new admissions per facility, and the cumulative number of unclaimed bodies, are captured each month."