SANTA LUCIA DIRECTOR ‘ADDS FUEL TO PAC FIRE’

LOBAMBA – Little did he know that trying to clear his company’s reputation would leave him in a bigger mess.

This was the experience of Themba Makhanya, the Director of Santa Lucia Funeral Services, who approached the Public Accounts Committee’s Chairperson Thuli Dladla in a bid to clear his name following that he has been haunted by an alleged E676 000 ‘corpses’ bill with government since 2008.  

The confident young businessman, as described by Dladla, called the chairperson and said he was disturbed by reports that he owed government, yet he had provided services to the Mbabane Government Hospital where he kept 10 corpses for a period on 10 months in his own morgue as the government-owned one was still under renovations.

He told the PAC that a group of managers from the hospital came to check his premises at Sidwashini and told him that his place was ideal to keep the corpses which were to receive a paupers funeral, as they had been unclaimed for a long time at the Mbabane Government Hospital.

He said there were nine adults and one child, all of whom were charged at E250 per corpse on a daily basis.
He said nowadays, it was anything between E400–E600 in the industry to keep a corpse on a daily basis.
According to the Auditor General’s report, the mortuary services were rendered from April 2006 to July 2008.

Makhanya told the PAC that in fact, he should have charged government between E800 000 to E900 000, but after negotiations the amount was lowered to E676 000.

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