Uproar over KZN Health decision's to shut Gale Street mortuary
Some Durban funeral service providers are up in arms over the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department's decision to close down the busy Gale Street mortuary.
The service providers have formed a committee under a campaign called Save Gale Street aimed at stopping the closing down of the facility.
READ: IPID launches probe into death of Addelaid Ferreira-Watt
An assessment by the KZN Health committee last month found that the facility is in no shape to operate and advised bodies to be moved to another centre in Phoenix, north of Durban.
Chairperson of newly formed committee of funeral services, Nkosentsha Shezi says this will logistically affect bereaved families.
"To close that facility in that area, where it is central for people coming from other provinces it is an indictment to our democracy itself. We cannot allow a democratic state in a democratic dispensation to unilaterally on it's own decide without involving stakeholders."
"People want to bury their loved-ones in time and when you are closing down that mortuary and you decide to move the bodies to another mortuary, that mortuary in itself has it's own backlog," he said.
KZN Health says they are yet to receive a formal engagement from the committee so that they may comment.
