The DA believes that the KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane, has a case to answer to after a woman claimed to have woken up at a Durban hospital mortuary.
Constantia Junior Govender claimed that she woke up, naked and covered with a blanket at the Phoenix mortuary.
In an initial interview with Phoenix Tabloid, Govender recalled blacking out while walking to a friend's house.
The 52-year-old Clayfield woman said she could not remember being taken to the hospital.
She said she woke up at the Phoenix mortuary “feeling cold and covered with a sheet from a corpse bed”.
She alleged that she panicked when she saw another body nearby. Govender told the publication that she was assisted by staff from the mortuary who wheeled her out of the cold room and took her to the casualty ward of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital.
She was reportedly told that when she had arrived at the same hospital earlier, she had no pulse and was administered oxygen but “flatlined” three times. She was further informed that after 45 minutes, staff called for the mortuary van.
"KZN’s people are already suffering the ill-effects of this ANC-run government’s inability to provide proper health care. If MEC Simelane-Zulu does not want to fan the flames of disgruntlement she will have to act immediately.
The DA's Edwin Baptie said: “The people of this community also deserve a clear and conclusive public statement from the MEC – one that puts paid to speculation and doubt arising from reports that lack sufficient detail.”
He called on both Govender and the department to furnish dates of when the alleged incident took place in order to enable a swift and conclusive probe.
The DoH's Ntokozo Maphisa, told IOL that official records revealed that no such body was ever fetched from anywhere in Phoenix in April, or at any other time that month.
Nor was there a body that went missing after admission at any time from the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary, he added.
"During April 2023, there were a total of eight Indian females that were admitted. Seven of them were identified and released to families. Of the eight bodies, seven were of adults, and one was of an 8-month-old baby. The body that has not been identified yet and is still at the mortuary, awaiting identification," Maphisa said.
IOL