Minister Dikoloti dragged into the fight for corpses
Jimmy Kereng of Prestige Funeral Parlour has appealed to the Minister of Health Edwin Dikoloti to stop all ongoing deals between FSG Funeral parlour and Bamalete Lutheran Hospital (BLH) in Ramotswa.
Kereng is begging the minister to investigate and bring to a halt a Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) project between the hospital and FSG. He claims that the hospital mortuary is being managed by FSG.
“They have FSG staff on daily basis in hospital premises assisting bereaved families and in so doing directing them to their business premise. This is a very weird arrangement and tarnishes the image of our health fraternity as these so-called morticians pick the deceased at hospital wards,” a complaint letter sent to the minister seen by this publication, reads.
Reached this week, Minister Dikoloti confirmed having received communique from the aggrieved and said he is yet to meet them.
“I only received a WhatsApp message last week Wednesday and agreed to meet them when I return from the UN General Assembly,” Dikoloti said, further explaining that he only arrived from New York in the United States of America on Monday.
Meanwhile Kereng has written another letter to Bamalete Hospital complaining about what he perceived as “irregular arrangement” between the hospital and FSG.
“We have seen employees of Lyns consulting and dispatching deceased at the Bamalete Lutheran Hospital mortuary and to our amazement, we were made to believe that there is some form of CSR arrangement between the two parties.
“Our position is that there is capture of the hospital mortuary by our competitors and we request that due diligence process be undertaken in the form of invitation to expression of interest to avail such services to the hospital that shall be open to all interested. “Pending that arrangement, we request that FSG/LYNs should withdraw their staff from BLH,” the letter to the hospital board says.
The hospital admitted to The Midweek Sun that they are working on a CSR project with FSG which is yet to be announced.
"They wish to assist the hospital with three mortuary attendants as they have identified a gap and by so doing service delivery will be improved," Onalenna Disang,the hospital spokesperson, said.
She added that they are a reputable organisation with a mandate to save lives, not kill people for business with FSG as some allege.
In a previous interview with this publication, the Regional Manager at FSG Limited Modisaotsile Moletsane declined to comment on the matter saying only BLH can comment.
Reached again this week, Moletsane referred this publication to one Banyatsi, saying the person was head of operations and best suited to respond. However, efforts to reach Banyatsi proved futile as he was said to be out of office.
BACKGROUND
Two weeks ago, this publication exposed the countrywide rot in the undertaker industry, where some mortuaries have been found out to reward hospital staff to for transferring corpses to their morgues when patients die.
This has had the effect of forcing bereaved families to end up doing business at these mortuaries, or paying for the few hours or days their loved ones were kept there before taking them to their preferred undertaker. In following up the matter around the country, it was found out that Bamalete Lutheran Hospital in Ramotswa was using employees from FSG, one of the undertaker businesses in the country.
The Midweek Sun reported then that competition for business among funeral parlours had turned nasty and unethical with some parlours now fighting bitterly for corpses by any means necessary. Employees of some funeral parlours are often spotted loitering outside hospitals waiting for clients and as soon as they see devastated family members leaving the hospital or hearing people cry, they are quick to pounce on them, while others even go to grieving families’ houses.
It has since emerged that some funeral parlour employees are paid to literally camp all day at major hospitals, just so they don't miss out on a newly announced death, even when families would already be having arrangements with their preferred undertakers, made in advance through policies.
What shocks some funeral parlour owners is that they even receive calls from hospital staff asking for quotations on behalf of families - an act regarded as very suspicious as to what exactly transpires after people die in hospitals. Several mortuary owners and managers confirmed knowledge of the dirty tricks, with one Cecil Soutter of Doves Funeral Parlour revealing that the practice has been there for many years, where government officials are even involved as they are paid to poach clients.
He said then that there are instances where some hospital staff tamper with government mortuaries and pretend they are not working so that they find business for their funeral parlour friends. Some of these hospital staff are allegedly paid to come up with all tricks to see to it that they take business to the undertakers who pay them.
Mabitleng Mafike of Nkasala Funeral Service also confirmed the shady business, saying he too has observed that some hospital staff would take dead bodies to a particular parlour based on false reports that other morgues were not functional or at full capacity. But what is sad, Mafike added, is that once the family learns what had happened and wishes to move the body from that parlour to one of their choice, they are charged exorbitant prices for the few hours of service they provided and more just because the family wishes to take the body out of their morgue. "This is when trouble begins, I will be there waiting to take the corpse and my competitor refuses with the corpse demanding money," Mafike said.
Manager of Golden Star funeral parlour, Corrinna Pineda said they were shocked when a client came to her visibly angry saying while they were at the hospital and still deciding which funeral parlour they would be using, a certain gentleman came to them advertising their competitor.
“They are taking advantage of grieving families knowing they are in pain and will not have time to question certain things. It is not right," she said.