FNB PUMPS IN E500 000 FOR GOOD SHEPHERD MORGUE

MBABANE – A Siteki based family was left shuttered last week when it found the corpse of its loved one in a decomposing state after fetching it from the Good Shepherd Hospital morgue.
There are various reasons why a corpse may decompose in a mortuary one of which maybe freezers not containing enough cold to keep bodies frozen.

Lugongolweni Member of Parliament Ntsetselelo Magongo had to come to the rescue as the family did not even have enough financial resources to buy a coffin to bury the deceased.
The family might not be the only one affected by this as the mortuary in the biggest hospital in the Lubombo Region needs urgent attention.

Magongo in an interview said reports of the condition of the mortuary only came to his attention last week after the family approached him for assistance.
He said the family had to go to the hospital for a post-mortem only to find their relative in a bad state.
He said the family needed his assistance to buy a coffin for their loved one.

Fortunes will change for the better for the Lubombo Region as the FNB Foundation yesterday donated E500 000 towards the reconstruction of the mortuary which was said to be in a dilapidated state. The donation was made by FNB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and FNB Foundation Chairman Dennis Mbingo as well as the foundation’s Board Member Clement Dlamini at the Mountain Inn.

Good Shepherd Board Chair Makhosazane Mthethwa said the mortuary project would start next month and was expected to be completed by May 2019. Mthethwa said the new mortuary would have improved services which included the conducting of post-mortems under very conducive conditions. She said the mortuary would be beneficiary to the whole region.

Hopeful

“It is really in bad shape but we are very hopeful that it will change for the best,” Mthethwa said.
He said the project had taken about two years to take off. He said a construction company had already been selected in consultation with the Foundation. She added that they would continue to strive to give quality services at the hospital.
Elaborating on the importance of the mortuary, Mthethwa said it did not only accommodate people who died at the hospital but also those who died on the region’s public roads. She said the mortuary is in a bad state as the hospital was very old. She explained that the socio-economic situation of the region made it difficult for people to use private mortuaries.

Mthethwa said relatives of many people who died at the hospital had difficulty going to private mortuaries and the Good Shepherd was their hope.
Good Shepherd Hospital CEO Dumisile Simelane said the refurbished mortuary would enable pathologists to have two post-mortem tables; one for decomposed bodies and another for those that were in a good state. Simelane said there would also be a waiting area and offices for doctors. She said there would be 21 chillers, three freezers and six shelves.

Simelane said to her knowledge there were two private mortuaries in the Lubombo Region.
Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi said death was part of life and the handling of corpses was equally important as other health processes. Nkosi said had Eswatini done what was done in other cultures where deceased people were buried a day or two after dying, maybe the donation would have been used to address other matters in the ministry.

“Mortuaries are as important in healthcare provision as other things we do,” said Nkosi.
Nkosi said at times people died but hospitals had difficulty in locating their relatives. She said sometimes such people died after road accidents and it took months or even years to locate relatives.

Dignity

She said there had to be safe and appropriate places where corpses could be kept without decomposing. She added that there also had to be some dignity in the way the dead were placed and there was no way government could neglect that.
Lugongolweni MP Magongo said he was lost for words as he did not know what to say to thank the FNB Foundation for donating towards the reconstruction of the mortuary. He said the hospital assisted the whole region. He said it was up to the hospital management to ensure that the mortuary was well maintained so that other sponsors could see how much they valued such gifts and also contribute.

He said the hospital was subsidised by government and when there were no resources from it, the health institution was bound to face problems. He said the gesture by the FNB Foundation was a sign that the organisation was not only here to make money but to plough back to the community.

Meanwhile, FNB Foundation’s Dlamini said the E500 000 donation was in response to a need that had been identified as dire.
He said the foundation aspired to ensure that its social responsibility initiatives did not only mean financial investments to charities but also stood for meaningful contributions that supported projects with long-lasting social impact and in-built sustainability measures that would guarantee projects continuity almost to the hilt.

Present at the function was Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr Simon Zwane, Deputy Director Dr Vusi Magagula, Deputy Directors Dr Velephi Okello and Rejoice Nkambule among others.

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