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Split over state of morgues

tegan — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:48:47 +0000

Picture: MARK ANDREWS

Pretoria and Bhisho are split over conditions at state- run mortuaries in the Eastern Cape after the national Department of Health downplayed the situation, while the legislature insists it is worse than reported.

Two conflicting reports were released this week, one by the national department’s health forensic pathology services directorate and the other by the legislature’s health portfolio committee.

The two reports vary in detail relating to the morgues inspected by both parties and show glaring disparities.

Now, the provincial committee chairman, MPL Mxolisi Dimaza, has called for the national department to explain the discrepancies.

“We saw barbaric tools being used by staff,” said Dimaza. “How can they say there is no problem when a pair of garden shears is still used to cut open a body?”

During a month-long Daily Dispatch investigation – in which morgues from Lusikisiki to Port Elizabeth were inspected – corpses were found piled on floors, a dead baby was found rotting in a waste bucket, and organs were left out in the open.

Mortuary workers described their conditions as a “living hell” and complained that protective clothing, proper tools and equipment were in very short supply .

However, the 12-page national report states that there is adequate equipment and protective clothing for the Woodbrook (East London), Mthatha and Lusikisiki forensic pathology laboratories.

In complete contrast, the portfolio committee discovered that:

The Woodbrook morgue only has one electric head-saw which breaks often, and staff are forced to use pieces of wood instead of proper headrests for the deceased;
The Mthatha morgue has six broken head-saws and the air-conditioners are not working in the dissecting room; and
The Lusikisiki morgue’s tools often break and are extremely dangerous to use.

The national department – which carried out inspections a week before their provincial counterparts – only visited three mortuaries in two days, while the portfolio committee scrutinised 15 in four days.

After the national department’s inspection of Mthatha’s morgue, they insisted all consumables were stocked in a storeroom. Yet the provincial committee discovered there was no storeroom on site at the Mthatha mortuary.

Provincial health boss Siva Pillay supports the national report and said the portfolio committee inspection was undertaken by “unqualified people”. “There is a shortage of staff but no shortage of equipment,” he said. “They (the equipment) might be of poor quality but we are addressing this.”

The national report also glossed over the problems discovered at the Mthatha and Lusikisiki morgues during the Dispatch’s investigation.

The national department’s report disputes findings in the Dispatch exposé, while the provincial committee backs up this investigation.

A similar tactic was used by the government in 2007 when the Dispatch reported on the explosive number of baby deaths at Frere Hospital. At first the reports were vehemently denied and only later did then deputy health minister Noziziwe Madlala-Routledge validate the Dispatch’s findings.

Despite the contradictory reports, national health spokesman Fidel Hadebe said yesterday the department was taking the situation in Eastern Cape morgues seriously.

“We work closely with our counterparts in all the provinces to improve the conditions in these morgues so that the dead can receive dignity on the basis of the services we provide,” he said.

Hadebe said he had not seen the portfolio committee report but would – after reviewing it – ask officials to clarify the differences.

The national report denies that staff at Mthatha were forced to fetch water from a nearby river, as reported by the Dispatch. However, the newspaper’s investigation stated that Lusikisiki staff had to cart water from a nearby river.

National department’s report also insisted employees were fully immunised in two of the three morgues inspected.

According to the committee’s findings and Dispatch interviews, immunisation is rarely carried out in any Eastern Cape morgue – including the two mentioned.

During the committee’s tour of the province, the two groups found more than 100 serious problems at state-run mortuaries.

The detailed findings at morgues not visited by the Dispatch were as grim as the newspaper’s findings and range from clogged dissecting room drains to sexual assault toxicology samples not being collected by the police for over five years.

The committee listed in the 11- page report that the Aliwal North morgue had no protective clothing, improper equipment, staff shortages, one vehicle, no generator, no X-ray machine, fridges that break often , and that dissections were being done without an investigation officer present. The Grahamstown’s morgue had had its fridge fixed so often the cost of repairs exceeded the cost of a new fridge, and there was no back- up generator.

Pillay said the portfolio’s report was based on “disgruntled employees” who had been given a political platform to voice concerns. “We will investigate the findings of the report but there has been a huge improvement at provincial morgues of late ,” he said. – By MICHAEL KIMBERLEY and LINDILE SIFILE

OUR OPINION: Managers must answer

tegan — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:37:38 +0000

How difficult can it be to run a mortuary? The Dispatch investigation into Eastern Cape mortuaries may suggest that it is an extremely complex industrial process. The horrifying conditions we have found in the 12-mortuary investigation included stacks of uncovered and unidentified bodies – many badly decomposed, staff forced to work in dirt and filth without access to clothing and equipment which would prevent diseases, body parts and samples uncollected. In the most shocking discovery, a dead baby was found in a waste paper basket.

We also found that mortuary managers did not have post-schooling qualifications.

These appalling conditions for dealing with our deceased are an affront to most people and constitute a dangerous working environment for staff.

But, the reality is that it is neither complex nor difficult to manage these facilities. There are international benchmarks – as spelt out by the World Health Organisation – which are easy to attain. These require the provision of proper equipment, clothing and materials, including heavy duty gloves and soap.

The Cecilia Makiwane Hospital mortuary – the hospital has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the past but, to its credit, not on this issue – has also shown how other morgues can be managed through controlled access to the facility; proper registration of bodies; covering and storage of corpses in an odourless and well-ventilated environment; and toxicology samples collected and processed within a week of an autopsy.

To its credit, provincial government has moved swiftly to staunch the fall-out from the mortuary disgrace and to bring some respectability to their operations, including suspending some morgue managers.

However, this is not the first time that the decrepitude in the mortuary sector has been raised. The Dispatch has reported on problems in local morgues before, and provincial officials have responded in an aghast fashion , promising that this would never happen again.

We also wonder why only junior managers have been suspended as part of the department’s response.

Why have senior managers been so patently absent in playing a role in identifying and correcting problems? And why are they not being held accountable now?

Health Superintendent General Siva Pillay this week said it was time for managers to account to the public. We agree, and would add that Pillay and his political bosses must also account to the public.

However, we fear managers in the public service feel no innate sense of accountability to the public.

Yet they should be held accountable in accordance with their conditions of service and national and international policies which apply.

Lusikisiki mortuary manager suspended

tegan — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:42:15 +0000

ACTION PLAN: Dr Tobela Nogela, the Health Department’s director of specialised services, speaks to mortuary managers and members of the media in Bhisho following the Daily Dispatch’s exposé of the poor state of government mortuaries last week. Picture: MLONDOLOZI MBOLO

The Department of Health has suspended a morgue manager and issued warning letters to staff following a Daily Dispatch exposé of the shocking state of Eastern Cape mortuaries.

A total of 14 mortuary and district health managers from across the province, including workers’ unions, were called to a meeting in Bhisho yesterday by superintendent-general Siva Pillay.

The meeting was called to address challenges facing morgues, which have led to the collapse of the facilities in the Eastern Cape.

At the meeting, Pillay admitted his department had neglected mortuaries and it was time for managers to account to the public. “When you feel the heat, you see the light – but you must know something is very wrong when you feel the heat and do not see the light,” said Pillay, referring to the Dispatch exposé.

In a month-long investigation into 12 Eastern Cape morgues, the Daily Dispatch discovered appalling conditions, including workers being exposed to deadly diseases due to non-availability of protective gear, a shortage of staff, the deceased being treated in an undignified manner, bodies being allowed to pile up, and in some instances, already rotting corpses, and specimens not being collected by police for months .

One of the most shocking discoveries was a dead baby dumped in a waste bucket in a fridge at a Mthatha morgue.

Following the Dispatch exposé, the department said it would launch its own probe. It also vowed to clean up its act within two weeks.

During the meeting in Bhisho, it was announced that the manager of the Lusikisiki morgue had been suspended and that staff at Woodbrook morgue in East London were given warning letters.

Director of specialised services Dr Tobela Nogela revealed that almost all mortuary managers only had a Grade 12 education.

Only the Mthatha manager had a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Despite this, Nogela was unable to provide answers as to why a dead baby was left in a waste bucket at the Mthatha morgue. “That should never have happened. We really do not know how it happened. As far as I know, that baby should have been kept in the fridge after the postmortem was done,” he said.

Nogela, who visited mortuaries after the exposé, discovered that some workers refused to comply with health and safety standards.

“I recently went to Woodbrook mortuary in East London and one worker refused to wear protective clothing. Staff also confirmed there were factions within the workplace, which caused problems.

“We also noticed that some morgues had problems with fridge temperature s,” said Nogela.

Eric Kriel, a former morgue manager and at present chief forensic pathologist officer at Woodbrook mortuary, said the problems had existed for quite some time.

“We must admit we were caught with our pants down. There was a time when we did not have a manager for a year and a half and I was elected in. But there were so many problems and staff conflicts that I just had enough and quit,” Kriel said.

During yesterday’s meeting, some managers questioned how the Dispatch had gained access to the mortuaries without authorisation and also raised concerns about the lack of security at these facilities.

However, Pillay said media access was irrelevant. “It i s a very sad thing to happen at a time when we are trying to save the image of the department and then a damaging report like this is published.

“We can stand on our heads and say this report is not true but the photographs are there as proof. How the Dispatch got in is not important to me. What is important is why the situation was like that when they were there, and someone must answer,” said Pillay.

He said his department had budgeted for mortuaries and was in the process of renovating some. “I still can’t believe there could be shortage of equipment. The managers must give me reasons why the situation is like this and we must find ways to fix it.

“I give you two weeks to change the current situation and then we will do an inspection on all the mortuaries,” said Pillay.

“Anyone who does not want to comply will feel the heat.” —By LINDILE SIFILE and MICHAEL KIMBERLEY

Grieving families pounced on

tegan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:00:20 +0000

Mafia-style tactics by crooked funeral parlours who hold corpses for ransom across the Eastern Cape are reaching epic proportions with no solution in sight.

Grieving families are often targeted by the coffin chasers, who charge massive fees for the release of a loved one – sometimes up to R6000.

Provincial Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo admitted that touting had been a well-known problem in the Eastern Cape for years. But a month-long Daily Dispatch investigation into State-run mortuaries suggests it has escalated out of control.

Corrupt parlours offer a R1000 kickback to hospital and mortuary workers in exchange for the right to be the first to claim a corpse.

The bodies are then “held for ransom” by the funeral parlours until they are paid by relatives.

The newspaper also discovered that at times, corrupt mortuary workers and hospital staff also effectively sold bodies back to bereaved families for as much as R500 each.

Touting has increased to such an alarming degree that nurses are even paid R100 by unscrupulous parlour owners simply to alert them to deaths in hospitals. It is believed touting is rampant in East London, Mthatha and Port Elizabeth.

During the newspaper’s probe – in which morgues from Lusikisiki to Port Elizabeth were inspected – corpses were found piled high on floors, a dead baby was found rotting in a waste bucket, organs were left out in the open, and staff were exposed to deadly diseases.

Provincial Health superintendent- general Dr Siva Pillay has promised sweeping changes in 10 days at all State-run mortuaries in the Eastern Cape.

Kupelo confirmed last week that the Health Department was investigating “many cases” of touting involving mortuary workers and nurses in Mthatha and East London.

Although he would not say how many were under investigation, the spokesperson admitted most State- run mortuaries and hospitals in the province were being abused in this regard.

“Appropriate action will be taken against the culprits and a dismissal or arrest is not ruled out, because this is fraud,” Kupelo said.

He confirmed that nurses were paid R100 to release information about patients who had recently died.

“Sometimes families only find out about a death a few days after it happens. Hospital and mortuary workers keep the body and lie [about the body being in the mortuary].”

“They claim it is being kept with a private parlour. Families are then forced to pay expensive storage fees to parlours,” he said.

Kupelo said the public should know that, by law, private parlours were not allowed to charge for bodies they stored for less than three days.

After the series of articles exposing the shocking conditions of State-run mortuaries last week, the Dispatch was contacted by a morgue worker who acknowledged that touting was becoming “outrageous”.

However, in an apparent defence of touting, he said many mortuary employees felt “underpaid” and that they deserved a “little extra”.

The worker said he was from the Transkei, but did not reveal his identity or admit he was involved in touting.

However, he said: “Lots of people do it. I don’t really see why it is wrong.”

Former private mortuary owner in Port Elizabeth Kobus Combrink said he had witnessed touting practices for many years while working in the industry. “These guys [parlour employees] park outside hospitals waiting for the nurses to give them a call if any death occurs in the hospital. They will then literally pounce on traumatised families as they walk out the hospital and make them sign documents to release the body.”

Now retired from the industry, Combrink said mortuary workers even refused to release death certificates unless the family agreed to use the parlour suggested.

“This practice is common in East London and in Port Elizabeth, where I’ve worked before,” he said.

With 30 years’ experience in the industry, Combrink linked “exorbitant” funeral costs to touting. “Parlours charge inflated prices to make up for the bribes they give to corrupt government workers,” he revealed.

Johan Rousseau, who has over 20 years’ experience in the industry, said touting needed to be addressed, as did other discrepancies in the “bedevilled, unregulated industry”.

Rousseau said instead of regulating it, the State “ignored the problems”.

“There is hard-core evidence that people are being ripped off – it is inhumane. We need a professional and ethical service – that’s why we need a statutory regulatory body that will look into this.” - By MICHAEL KIMBERLEY and LINDILE SIFILE

Pauper’s burial ‘no better than a dog’s’

tegan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:20:20 +0000

SAD SIGHT: Daisy Booth pays her last respects to a long-time friend, who was given a pauper’s burial at the Mdantsane NU15 Cemetery. Picture: MARK ANDREWS

Using a pauper’s burial to lay a loved one to rest is the same as burying a dog.

These were the words used by Daisy Booth shortly after burying her friend as a pauper at the Mdantsane NU15 Cemetery recently.

The deceased, Wena Fourie from Johannesburg, died a few weeks ago in Mdantsane under the care of Booth. She was 50 at the time of her death.

Paupers’ funerals are common in South Africa and they are used when no one takes responsibility for the costs of burying someone.

In terms of the Health Act of 1977, it is a municipality’s responsibility to pay for the removal and burial of the body of a destitute person or of an unclaimed body.

If the person dies in a hospital or another institution, then it is the responsibility of that hospital or institution.

Booth said letting Buffalo City Metro (BCM) bury Fourie was her only option – one that she immediately regretted after the funeral.

“She was treated like a dog all her life and now she is buried like a dog,” Booth said. “It is so sad how she was buried. I will never forget it. It’s a wound in my heart. She deserved a decent send-off.”

Fourie’s body is now in one of the thousand unmarked paupers’ graves in the Mdantsane cemetery. Both her parents and other family members are buried in Johannesburg.

Booth said she and Fourie had only been friends for a year but their families had a “long, long” relationship that went back “many years”.

Booth had been sharing her house in NU14 with the departed for the past year.

Unable to work after suffering a stroke, Booth and Daisy, who had epilepsy, were forced to survive on government grants.

Booth looked after Fourie until she died from an epilepsy attack a few weeks ago.

Because of their circumstances, Booth, also aged 50, could not afford to give her “best friend” a decent burial.

The Daily Dispatch team watched as a coffin made of chipboard arrived in the back of a battered hearse. The screws on the coffin were loose and had to be re-tightened before it was rolled out of the vehicle.

The coffin came with no handles and the two funeral parlour employees battled to carry it to the bumpy grave site 50m away.

Once at the grave site, the coffin was again unscrewed for Booth to see her friend, who was wrapped in a white plastic sheet inside the coffin.

“Go well my friend. Until we meet again,” were the only words said by Booth before she burst into tears and watched the coffin being lowered into the ground.

The funeral only lasted about 10 minutes and no religious overseer was present, as would be the case during a normal funeral service.

“Not having a priest was the hardest thing about the funeral,” said Booth afterwards, with tears streaming down her face.

Back at the graveside, funeral parlour employee Collen Mquqo said they sometimes buried up to 15 paupers and unknown bodies a day at Haven Hills and Mdantsane cemeteries. He said that having a priest would only slow them down.

“It’s a basic service and we try to be as accommodating to the bereaved as we can. We allow families to bring their own priests but it does not always work for us,” said Mquqo.

BCM pays for 493 burials

tegan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:16:59 +0000

Buffalo City Metro spends an average of R350000 a year on paupers’ burials, offering a service many describe as very basic.

Over the last financial year the Metro buried 493 bodies of destitute and unknown people at a cost of R1516 for an adult and R792 for a child.

By comparison, Amathole District Municipality carried out 26 pauper burials since 2009, at a cost of R67 000.

King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality (KSD) has spent R175026 since June last year. Figures show 72 people received pauper burials in 2010, while only eight have been laid to rest in this way this year.

Cemetery workers in Mdantsane, who the Daily Dispatch witnessed preparing a grave for a pauper burial, described the service as inhumane .

They said the poor-quality coffins exposed them to deadly infections while carrying out their duties. “We are doing the most dirtiest job here,” said one employee.

“Coffins are often blood-stained [and] sometimes body parts stick out. We have to fix this ourselves.”

Ndileka Mtoba, owner of Mtoba Funeral Directors in East London, said the amount BCM paid for a funeral was almost the same as she offered as a basic service to poor families.

She charged R1500 for a basic adult funeral, with the coffin making up most of the cost at R1050. The extra R450 covers the transportation of the body and its storage for roughly one or two weeks. “A basic coffin comes with rope handles,” she said.

These figures do not take into account the cost of digging the grave.

Dion Blignaut, of Mandrin Funeral Parlour, said destitute families had no other option when it came to burying their loved ones and the decision on how the burial was conducted was normally left to the contracted parlour. “It’s a basic service and unfortunately families have little to do with how it is conducted,” he said .

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the municipality believed pauper burials were handled in a dignified manner.

To arrange a pauper’s burial:

Burial assistance application forms are available at the BCM Health Department’s satellite offices. These documents can be filled out and submitted to the same office;
They should be accompanied by copies of the deceased and applicant’s IDs, a death certificate, an affidavit explaining the relationship between applicant and deceased, and a ward councillor’s letter confirming the deceased lived at the given address;
The Health Department processes application forms once all required documentation has been submitted.
The applicant is informed of the outcome regarding their application within two working days.
Only destitute and unclaimed bodies receive a pauper’ s burial.

What this burial comprises:

A free coffin;
A free gravesite;
Free transportation of the coffin from the parlour to the cemetery. The coffin does not go to the home of the deceased;
Families pay for their own transport; and
Families have to pay for the services of a minister of religion.

Parlour regrets getting city tender

tegan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:15:37 +0000

The owner of an East London funeral parlour contracted by Buffalo City Metro to carry out pauper burials regrets the day she signed the tender agreement.

During a month-long investigation into State mortuaries and pauper burials in the Eastern Cape, the Daily Dispatch found only one funeral parlour was contracted to bury unclaimed bodies in the city.

This parlour says it struggles with the slow process of finding relatives of the deceased . This, and rising funeral cost s are blamed for the bottleneck in the city, where unclaimed bodies pile up in morgues.

Nomawethu Nomaqajana, co-owner of Amakhwane Funerals, spoke of the financial losses the company was suffering and of the challenges they faced . She said together with her partner, she signed the two-year contract with BCM in 2010 and what was meant to be a dream deal turned into a nightmare.

She said they were not given specific details of what was expected of them and there were no guidelines.

“We were told problems will be solved as we encounter them,” said Nomaqajana.

The Dispatch has learnt that BCM spends R1516 to bury the body of an adult and R792 for a child.

Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said for an adult burial, R851 went towards the costs of preparing the grave, while R665 went towards the coffin and other services rendered by the contracted parlour.

However, Nomaqajana insists the municipality pays only R500 for every body they bury, of which R350 goes to the coffin makers.

“I am left with R150 to pay petrol, salaries and telephone bills to keep the business afloat,” she said. “Luckily, we have private clients. If it was up to us we would cancel the contract but our hands are tied.”

To add to their woes, as there is sometimes a battle to locate the families of the deceased, the parlour ends up having to store a number of bodies.

By law, a death certificate and an affidavit to prove that a family cannot afford to bury the deceased should be completed before a burial is carried out. “That law sometimes bites us back because we end up with unclaimed bodies that stay for months in our fridges and we can’t bury them,” said Nomaqajana.

“And it’s even worse when BCM health officials inspect our fridges and see severely decomposed bodies that have not been claimed .”

Regarding the poor quality coffins they use for pauper burials, Nomaqajana said they had no choice.

“I’m aware they are of a poor standard and have no handles, but we get a raw deal from the municipality,” she said. “I f there was a cheaper option we would go for it.”

Ngwenya said as far as the metro was concerned there were no problems with the handling of pauper burials in the city.

“A tendering process was done and we chose a service provider that met the requirements and one that came with a good price .

“We determine the price for coffins because if we didn’t, prices would fluctuate and cause financial problems for us.”

Ngwenya said police located families in cases where the deceased was unknown.

“The application for a pauper’s burial takes three days and it does not involve the parlour,” he said.

“They only get involved once we have given them a go-ahead for the burial. At no stage were we made aware there are issues regarding this process .” Ngwenya said if there were problems, the contracted parlour should meet with the metro to discuss them.

Five major problems

tegan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:12:38 +0000

The five biggest gripes – and reasons for the shocking state of the morgues – from workers in EC’s State- run mortuaries are:

Staff shortages, and workers being forced to work around the clock resulting from others being suspended for misconduct;
Shortage of equipment resulting in the “mishandling” of corpses;
No protective gear, resulting in workers being forced to wear civilian clothing on duty;
Workers do not receive any psychological counselling; and
A general absence of immunisation for workers to protect them from diseases.

According to the mortuary workers, these problems are the result of their own apathy, and the State’s disregard and indifference .

‘Not forced to cut on day one’

tegan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:58:10 +0000

Eastern Cape Health director of communications Siyanda Manana disputed claims that mortuary workers were forced to cut open bodies on their first day of work.

A mortuary worker at Mthatha State mortuary said he was shocked when he was asked to cut open a body on his first day on the job.

Manana said all staff members received “in-service training” when they started.

“They are not forced to cut bodies on day one,” he said.

“They are trained by professional, permanently employed doctors and in the process of that training, will be requested to cut a body as practical experience.”

Retired East London pathologist Dr Basil Wingreen, who has been in the field for 37 years, said medical legal assistants were, by law, not allowed to perform autopsies as it was a specialised skill.

“Their job is to dissect the body from the head down to the abdomen under the supervision of the pathologist.

“Their job ends there and the doctor will then do the rest.

“The medical legal assistant will then sew the body up, but again, the doctor must be present.

“How does an unqualified person know what to look for in a corpse?

“It’s disgraceful that managers let this illegal practice continue and it should be stopped,” said Wingreen.

Manana said the national departments of Health and Education were structuring a national diploma for forensic officers . – By LINDILE SIFILE

Health acts on morgue crisis

tegan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:55:40 +0000

The Eastern Cape’s health boss has ordered an immediate probe into the shocking findings of a Daily Dispatch exposé, and promised sweeping changes in two weeks at all State-run mortuaries.

The provincial Health superintendent-general (SG) Dr Siva Pillay yesterday promised an “immediate investigation” would take place into the inadequate qualifications of morgue managers.

The provincial Health Department has done a complete turnaround one day after publication of a Dispatch investigation into the shocking state of government mortuaries in the province.

Responding to allegations prior to publication on Wednesday, the then- complacent department insisted there was “no crisis”.

The province’s health portfolio committee will also be visiting various State-run mortuaries where horrendous practices are carried out every day.

No specific date has been given for these visits.

During the investigation – in which morgues from Lusikisiki to Port Elizabeth were inspected – corpses were found piled high on floors, a dead baby was found rotting in a waste bucket, organs were left out in the open, and staff were exposed to deadly diseases.

Breaking their silence for the first time, morgue workers revealed overburdened workloads, managerial incompetence and a “disinterested” provincial Health Department.

In all forensic laboratories visited during the month-long investigation, no managers were on site.

The Dispatch team, which travelled a total of 2500km, discovered that morgue employees often handled corpses without protective gear such as masks, aprons and gloves that are prescribed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

When asked why the conditions were so appalling, Pillay said that before he took the hot seat, the department had concentrated on “superficial” changes.

“Window dressing, actually. But I want to make fundamental changes now … from the ground up,” he said.

The former parliamentarian also said the department was still dealing with the “sub-standard state” and “poor management levels” the mortuaries were burdened with when they were moved from the police’s jurisdiction to the provincial Health Department in 2006.

Pillay – who has faced many death threats for his stand against corruption – admitted yesterday that many morgue managers across the province only had a “standard three” (Grade 5) education.

But the health boss promised: “We will immediately visit the morgues and examine the qualifications of all managers.”

He said while the department would not be able to “fire them on the spot”, they would be transferred to jobs “more suited” to their qualifications.

“We can’t lower their salaries either, but they won’t get a pay increase until they meet expected qualifications.”

A former Uitenhage mayor, Pillay said: “We can do something, and we will, but it will take a few days … two weeks.”

Pillay said the department’s supply chain process – which deals with procurement and tenders – was also a “problem” that needed “immediate attention”.

“There is money for protective clothing and equipment. Money was already allocated but I have to chase people to spend money. It is ridiculous,” he revealed.

Saying he was not angry about the Dispatch’s exposé, the SG said: “The newspaper must monitor us always, we appreciate it – but it must also work with us to fix the problems.”

The provincial Department of Health recently moved from a disclaimer to a qualified audit.

On the improvement, Pillay said the department was on the mend.

“There is a lot of things that are wrong with the department. Look at Elizabeth Donkin [Hospital] in Port Elizabeth. I would not even let my dog stay there,” the health boss admitted.

Mxolisi Dimaza, ANC chairperson of the health portfolio committee, agreed to make “oversight visits” to various State mortuaries in the province following the Dispatch’s investigation.

The request for the visits “as a matter of urgency” was made by the DA on Wednesday.

“The job of a portfolio committee is to exercise stringent oversight on State-run facilities and if need be, make firm recommendations to the legislature … where substantive resolutions are made and put into effect,” said the party’s acting provincial health spokesperson John Cupido.

“This is indeed the first step towards correcting the human rights injustices that have been uncovered recently, and towards restoring human dignity to the Eastern Cape.” — By MICHAEL KIMBERLEY and LINDILE SIFILE