Kalkrand family receives wrong corpse for burial

THE wrong body was delivered to a Kalkrand family for burial on Saturday.

The family of the late Sanna Goages (54) made this shocking discovery on Saturday while preparing to bury her at Kalkrand village, 70 kilometres north of Mariental in the Hardap Region.Three family members of the late Goages, who preferred not to be named, told Nampa that they instead received the body of the late Dina Afrikaner (88) from Coffin Shop Funeral Services. They said on the day of the funeral, Goages’s relatives requested Coffin Shop undertakers to accompany them to the mortuary to dress their dead relative, but they allegedly refused to go with the family.’They said they know how to do their work, and will not go with them to the mortuary. On opening the coffin after delivery, we realised that was not that of Goages, but that of Afrikaner because I knew her,’ said one family member.The Afrikaner family had already buried what they thought was Afrikaner’s remains the previous Saturday, and when they were called to identify the body at Goages’s family home, they confirmed that it was Afrikaner’s body. The same undertakers were responsible for Afrikaner’s burial in the same area.’We are arranging a search for our family member’s body, because we do not know whether it is the one buried by the Afrikaners, or if it is lost somewhere,’ another family member of Goages said.Police Commissioner Kobus Meyer said the matter was reported to the police, but no charges were laid.Several attempts to get comment from the Coffin Shop failed, as the office telephone was not answered. – Nampa

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