Central SA
Free State Health still struggling with post-mortems─── ZENANDE MPAME 12:26 Sat, 29 Mar 2025
The Free State Department of Health aims to achieve a turnaround time of less than four days for conducting post-mortems; however, currently, it has a turnaround time of seven days.
The department continues to face challenges in conducting proper post-mortems following the closure of the Mangaung government mortuary last year.
The Department of Labour closed the government morgue last year due to safety concerns, including exposed copper wiring, poor ventilation, and a clogged sewerage system.
The Department of Health confirmed that while most issues raised in the prohibition notice have been addressed, the ventilation and extraction system still requires critical repairs.
“We found that our central ventilation system was vandalised and we have opened a case with the police so that a proper investigation can be done regarding that,” said Free State MEC of Health Monyatso Mahlatsi.
“We attempted to bring along mobile air conditioners to provide ventilation, but they proved not to be sufficient. I was assured by the team on the ground that the project of dealing with the ventilation will be concluded in the next two weeks.”
Bloemfontein Courant reports an occupational hygienist assessed the facility and estimated that the necessary upgrades could take three to six months.
In the meantime, autopsies are still conducted at the University of the Free State, where a contract has been extended to support forensic pathology services as well as university operations.
‘We have about four facilities which we use to decant’
Post-mortems are performed at the university and Botshabelo Forensic Mortuary, while bodies are temporarily housed at different medical facilities. The Welkom Mortuary is also available as an additional option.
“We have refurbished the Botshabelo facility so that it can also assist us in being an overflow, and plans are underway to build a new facility in Welkom so that we can exceed the premises of SAPS in that area and be in a standalone area,” said Mahlatsi.
“At this point, we have about four facilities, including the one in Kroonstad, which we can decant should the need arise, and we have a bigger backlog on this side. We are using different facilities so that we avoid overloading and collapsing just one facility.”
