Dudu Kubisi was killed in a car crash in June last year. Her body was taken to a state mortuary and later handed to the wrong family for burial.
Now, one year later, following an exhumation, her real family is dealing with the painful task of planning her funeral with so many unanswered questions.
Speaking to IOL, an emotional Martha Kubisi shared how her family had no idea that her older sister had died in a car accident.
She said it was only when they began searching local hospitals and then government mortuaries that their traumatic ordeal exposed how their loved one’s body was buried by the wrong people and later exhumed.
“My sister was hit by a car in June 2023 and died at the scene. She was taken to a local mortuary as an unknown. Her body was then given to another family for burial. Their loved one died in the Steve Biko Academic Hospital,” Martha said.
She said the hospital called the other woman’s family to ask why they had not collected her body from the morgue, and they responded that they had already conducted a funeral and buried the body of someone who they thought was their relative.
Martha said the morgue realised the error and took her sister’s fingerprints to the Department of Home Affairs.
She said on December 23, 2023, the fingerprints confirmed her 43-year-old sister’s identity. Two days later, the Kubisi family was told that Dudu’s body would be exhumed and she would be buried as a pauper.
The family turned to the Funeral Industry Reformed Association (Fira) for assistance after receiving “little to no help” from morgue officials.
Martha said after Dudu’s remains were exhumed, she went to the morgue and was disgusted by what she found.
“It’s like my sister’s body wasn’t even put into a fridge. Her flesh was on the body bag. It was very traumatic,” Martha said.
Martha said the family was in the process of making funeral arrangements to bury Dudu on Wednesday.
“I cannot deal with this. We are just numb. It’s like this is a sci-fi movie but it’s our life. We have so many questions. It has taken a major impact on my grandmother’s health,” Martha said.
She added that her family was robbed of performing cultural rites at the scene where Dudu died.
Speaking to IOL, Fira’s Johan Rosseau said this is one of hundreds of cases they deal with on a daily basis.
He said government needs to get on board and institute regulatory boards and authorities to deal with the issue.
IOL News