During the DA's visit earlier today it was discovered that the mortuary is under-resourced and under-staffed. One of the pivotal issues that have been raised by the Manager of the mortuary, Ernest Lesabe, is that the majority of their freezers do not work properly. They also have a backlog of about 40 decomposing bodies that dates back to last year March that has still not been identified. Lesabe says their challenges further include a lack of personnel within the histology laboratory, which leads them to rely on laboratories outside the facility, amongst other things. He says they have reported the matter to the department several times but it seems their call has fallen on deaf ears.

According to some of the employees at the state mortuary, the stench at the hospital is unbearable due to the heat this time of the year and the dysfunctional freezers. The mortuary has a total body capacity of 256 but caters for more.

Plumbing at the mortuary is described by some pathologists and their assistants as a mess, which also poses a health risk to all the employees.

DA MP and leader in the Free State, Patricia Kopane, says is it disappointing that employees at the mortuary are subjected to poor working conditions where basic necessities such as protective clothing are not sufficiently provided and that they often have to work prolonged hours due to the staff shortage. About 13 positions which have been advertised in the past year remain vacant.

Kopane says it is unacceptable that the police and the municipality are also not playing their part. She says they will soon be engaging the Health MEC Montseng Tsiu’s office and the local municipality on the matter, before presenting it to parliament.

Kopane has alluded that the company procured by the government to maintain the freezers and air conditioners within the building must be brought to book, as it is alleged the situation at this mortuary has been deteriorating since 2010 despite the company’s monthly services.

Meanwhile, the Free State Department of Health spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi, says they are in the process of filling vacancies after a prolonged process of negotiation with unions on the grading of posts. They have received approval for the payment of overtime in all cases where they are able to account for overtime worked.

He further states there are eleven fridges which can accommodate 10 bodies, and three freezers which can accommodate 15 bodies. Two freezers are currently not functioning and their technicians are attending to them.

He says the heatwave is affecting a lot of things in an unusual way and their technicians are responding to all changing requirements at the mortuary.

Mvambi said overall the department is working on improving contract management and shorten the turnaround time for repair and maintenance

With regard to the backlog of the bodies at the mortuary, Mvambi said “this is due to the number of pauper burials that the municipality conduct per year. The last burials were conducted last year in March 2018. We buried 60 bodies on that occasion. We hope that the next round of pauper burials will enable us to dispose of the current backlog we have”.

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