Durban - It’s been almost four years since a family in Empangeni began the process of having their murdered son, who was given a pauper’s burial, exhumed so he can be laid to rest properly.
Last week, the Myeza family was given the green light by the Durban High Court to go ahead with their plans, but all that stands between burying Nhlakanipho Myeza is a few thousand rand, which the family cannot afford.
Nhlakanipho disappeared in June 2019, and his father, Mzikayise, only learnt in November 2020 that his son had been given a pauper’s burial by the state four months earlier. Nhlakanipho was allegedly caught stealing from a taxi owner in uMlazi. He was assaulted and left for dead.
Community members found him still alive and called for help, but he gave the paramedics a false name. This led to the police failing to inform his family about his death. He lay unidentified at the Gale Street mortuary for 13 months, and only in July 2020 were police able to identify him using his fingerprints.
His family were told that, for an exhumation to be done, a death certificate, a R1700 exhumation fee and a DNA test were required. In October 2021 Home Affairs intervened and issued them with a death certificate. At the time, Mzikayise told the Sunday Tribune that the death certificate would enable the family to make claims from their funeral policies for the reburial.
However, he received a double blow when he learnt that the claims had been rejected, as he had taken out insurance cover for Nhlakanipho only after his death.
The eThekwini Municipality informed him that approvals for exhumations were granted no earlier than two years after burial, meaning he would have to wait until 2023 to have the body exhumed. In February last year, Mzikayise succumbed to an illness. His daughter, Neli, was left with the responsibility of reburying her brother.
“Icebolethu Group quoted R28500 for taking him from (Umkomaas) to Empangeni for a funeral. As a member with an active policy, I approached them, but they told me that, since he had died in June 2019 and was only covered from August 2019, when he was reported missing, not much could be done for us.
“We were, however, able to negotiate down to R11500 because I had continued paying for his funeral cover for the whole of 2020,” she said. Over and above this amount, Neli has to pay the eThekwini Municipality the R2000 it spent on her brother’s pauper’s burial.
“When our father died, we used all the money we had, and he also had only one policy, which did not pay out much. I am under pressure from authorities to provide a date to fetch my brother, but my hands are tied because we cannot afford it,” she said. Neli was hoping to make a payment arrangement with Icebolethu Group. Icebolethu had not responded at the time of going to print
SUNDAY TRIBUNE