Ministry mum on body pile-up

The government yesterday remained mum on what is being done to solve the crisis at the Windhoek police mortuary, which is filled up to eight times its intended capacity.
Yesterday, staff at the police morgue confirmed that at the moment 184 bodies have been logged into their system, 160 more than the police morgue was built to hold at one time, excluding additional space for a maximum of six decomposed bodies.
On Wednesday, City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya explained that in the past, so-called pauper’s burials were done in municipal cemeteries and the government was billed.
She said that after consultations with the Ministry of Health and Social Services in 2011, the municipality began cremating unclaimed bodies, again billing the government for those services.
“The Ministry of Health and Social Services is responsible for unclaimed bodies and therefore appoints an undertaker to facilitate the process. The normal procedures for cremation are still followed,” she said. Cremation is cheaper than burial, Amutenya explained.
Numerous emails and phone calls to the Ministry of Health and Social Services remained unanswered at the time of going to press.
The police also confirmed that there had been no further developments following their urgent appeal asking people to claim the bodies of their dead relatives.
According to the morgue database, corpses dating back to 2009 are still being held in the fridge.
According to a notice in the Government Gazette in 2010, unclaimed bodies in the morgue should be buried within 14 days after post-mortems are conducted. The head of the state hospital in question may direct in writing that a body be buried in a cemetery nearest to that mortuary.
A former undertaker, who preferred to remain anonymous, yesterday said when the City of Windhoek was responsible for pauper’s burials the system worked smoothly. He said undertakers received a weekly list of the names of unclaimed bodies that were to be buried and paid for by the municipality.
“When the City stopped being responsible, and government took over, no one took responsibility anymore,” he said.
He said a burial, which is the preferred method of interment for many in Namibia, could cost as little as N$2 000. “It does not have to cost an enormous amount of money.” Cremations are cheaper still.
He said every Namibian deserves a dignified interment. “Just imagine lying there for year after year, in an overfull morgue, with no one who cares what happens to your body.”
The former undertaker said there is no doubt that the government has a responsibility for unclaimed bodies. “Somewhere, someone is not doing their job, and I think the channels of communication have broken down.
“Our president would not allow this to happen if he knew. Our government would not shy away from doing its duty. But somewhere the message is not coming across properly. They need to address this urgently,” he said.
On Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Jooste Mbandeka, head of the Namibian Police’s forensic pathology division, described the current situation at the mortuary as the worst he had ever seen.
Another undertaker yesterday told Namibian Sun that it is “undignified” to keep dead bodies in a refrigerator for years.
“It is shocking and it should not be allowed,” the undertaker said, adding that eventually someone would have to step up to the plate and find a solution.
Daily exposure to overfull fridges filled with slowly decomposing corpses is also a health concern for those who work at the mortuary. They say the fridges were not designed to hold so many corpses and cannot operate effectively.
JANA-MARI SMITH