Shockwaves hit the country when the Daily Dispatch recently published an exposé of the state of government-owned morgues in the Eastern Cape. Horrifying pictures accompanied this investigative piece depicting decomposing bodies stacked up in piles and exposing extremely unsanitary working conditions.
Shockwaves hit the country when the Daily Dispatch recently published an exposé of the state of government-owned morgues in the Eastern Cape. Horrifying pictures accompanied this investigative piece depicting decomposing bodies stacked up in piles and exposing extremely unsanitary working conditions.
As the morgues in Grahamstown were not mentioned in the Daily Dispatch article, Grocott's Mail investigated the two local state-owned morgues; the Grahamstown police station mortuary and the Settlers' Hospital mortuary.
Post-mortems in only occur at the police station mortuary. Reporters witnessed that such operations are conducted by trained professionals in a clean and sanitary environment.
According to facility manager, Roderick Lotter, the mortuary serves 17 police stations from Fort Beaufort to the Kei Bridge as well as Settlers' Hospital.
On day to day basis Lotter says they get between five and ten bodies.
"We only do four post-mortems a day to avoid human error…we try to keep the facilities clean at all times so that the families can view the bodies in dignity," said Lotter.
Settlers' Hospital mortuary was equally clean and well sanitised and employees were very helpful.
Unlike many parts of the Eastern Cape, residents of Grahamstown can be assured that their deceased are treated with dignity.
