Police morgue still a mess

The overpowering smell of death continues to hang over the Windhoek police mortuary, while paperwork holds up the cremation of 76 of the 179 unclaimed bodies in the cold room.
A NamPol mortuary technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity, yesterday said: “If there is no change, the smell will just continue. The change can only come after the bodies are cleared and cremated.”
Last month, the head of the police pathology division, Deputy Commissioner Jooste Mbandeka, explained that the smell at the mortuary clearly shows that “something is not right”.
Mbandeka, who has worked at the police mortuary for well over two decades, explained that efficient mortuaries are ideally “cleaner than a hospital and are supposed to have a natural smell”.
NamPol mortuary staff hope the situation will change soon, following an offer from the Ministry of Health and Social Services to cremate 76 of the 179 bodies currently stored at the police morgue, designed to accommodate a maximum of 30 bodies.
The offer was made days after the forensic pathology division made an urgent call to the public to claim the bodies of their dead relatives.
The current situation, which escalated to more than 184 bodies being held in the cold room last month, slowing down autopsies due to a lack of storage space, was a result of the public either refusing to collect bodies due to the high costs of funerals, or neglecting to identify the bodies of dead relatives, senior officials explained.
Since mid-July however, the paperwork required to cremate the 76 bodies has not been completed, and the mortuary technician yesterday said he would only believe the bodies will be cleared “once I see it.” Deputy Commissioner Mbandeka yesterday said while there have been “no developments yet” at the police morgue, the paperwork is under way.
“Home Affairs is finalising the death registration and then the cremations will take place.”
He again pleaded with the public to identify and collect their dead.
Although there was a positive response to the previous plea, he said none of the unclaimed bodies were positively identified.
The “catastrophic” situation at the morgue, as described by Mbandeka last month, was partly due to a lack of budget made available to NamPol to bury or cremate unclaimed bodies after a specified amount of time.
Last month, the police confirmed that discussions were under way with the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Finance and a request for N$5 million had been submitted to help the NamPol forensic pathology division cover the cremation costs of unclaimed bodies.
JANA-MARI SMITH