S’THEMBILE Dladla’s family was devastated when she killed herself last week – but more heartache was coming.
First her corpse was gnawed by rats, and as if that was not enough to deal with, when the family opened the coffin before S’thembile’s funeral on Sunday it was discovered that one of her eyes was missing!
The traumatised family from Ndwedwe, north of Durban, were forced to postpone the funeral.
According to her relatives, S’thembile’s body was sent to a funeral parlour last Monday after she took an overdose of pills and died.
Her uncle, Mchitheni Dladla (65) said when the family arrived at the undertakers, Mahle Burial Scheme, to collect S’thembile for the funeral, staff broke the news that rats had gnawed the body.
“When we checked the body we noticed that her left cheek and left eye were damaged,” said Mchitheni.
“We were understanding and took her body home to prepare for the funeral.”
He said the family held a meeting about the situation on Sunday morning and they decided to open the coffin and check the body again.
“We were shocked to find that her left eye was now missing. We were very angry because we believe that our daughter’s body was mutilated.
“We called the police, who came and took the body away for investigation,” said Mchitheni.
He said the family wanted the funeral parlour to be investigated and for the investigation to be completed quickly so that S’thembile can be laid to rest.
KZN police spokeswoman Captain Nqobile Gwala said an inquest docket was opened at Nsuze cop shop for investigation.
Mahle Burial Scheme owner Mahle Mhlongo referred Daily Sun to Mbhekiseni Sibisi, who transported the body to and from the funeral parlour.
“I was not there when the family found out the body had allegedly been mutilated. Please speak to the driver,” said Mahle.
Sibisi confirmed that he had transported the body.
“When I went to collect the body with the family on Saturday, the funeral parlour owner told me it was eaten by rats. I don’t know what happened next,” said Sibisi.
He said he could not give too many details because police were investigating.
