East London | Wednesday
AN East London undertaker has been holding the bodies of two women since October last year pending payment of outstanding storage fees from a business counterpart.
Mzamo Ngcawana, owner of the Ngcawana Funeral Services, said he had been asked by Vuyisile Nqoma, who owns the Bathethile Abantu Funeral Services, to store 16 bodies in October last year.
Nqoma made the arrangement while he moved his funeral parlour from East London to Mdantsane.
However, Ngcawana alleged Nqoma failed to pay the storage fees of R5 000. Ngcawana said he had held the last two bodies in lieu of the payment.
The debt has since accumulated to more than R12 000 because of the prolonged period of storage.
The families of the two dead women, Vuyelwa Zanekile of Potsdam and Nontandathu Tyenana of Nosanti village in Quru, have been unable to bury the bodies because of the dispute.
Ngcawana claimed they had agreed to R30 a day storage fees, but Nqoma complained that he was being overcharged.
”He (Nqoma) took some of the bodies and paid a portion of the debt claiming that he was under financial pressure.
”When he came to collect remaining two bodies I asked him to pay the outstanding debt which he promised to pay me later, but I refused to release the bodies as there would have been nothing to force him pay later,” Ngcawana said.
When contacted, Nqoma said Ngcawana’s actions were ”totally uncalled for”.
”He (Ngcawana) wants to make money out of me, but I want this to be settled in court as I am not prepared to pay money I do not owe.
”He kept the two bodies from November until now at his own free will.”
Nqoma said he owed Ngcawana between R5 000 and R6 000 for the storage of all 16 bodies in October alone and was not prepared to pay the subsequent storage costs.
He also claimed that he had approached Ngcawana with the affected families when the two were due to be buried.
But Ngcawana refused to release the bodies before payment.
Ngcawana said he had referred the dispute to his lawyers and would withdraw the claim if Nqoma paid the legal costs and the storage fees for October.
He added that he was also considering locating the affected families to find a solution to end the debacle.
Attempts to contact the two families were unsuccessful. -Sapa