Ngaevarue Katjangua
Windhoek-Regional Councillor for Otjinene Constituency Erwin Katjizeu said that in the absence of a functional mortuary at Otjinene health centre he uses his own car to transport corpses to the nearest mortuary in Gobabis.
New Era has reliably learned that the Otjinene heath centre has no functional mortuary and the only means of keeping corpses cool is by laying them out nude on the floor and hope for the best.
Katjizeu confirmed this in a telephonic interview with New Era yesterday, adding that many people cannot afford to transport the bodies of their loved ones to Gobabis and he therefore steps in to assist by using his private transport.
“We have been having problems with the mortuary here at Otjinene health centre for months now – it does not function properly due to an old cooling system that allegedly cannot be fixed. This causes me to use my private vehicle to transport corpses to the mortuary in Gobabis, where the nearest mortuary is, especially for poor people.
“At times residents are forced to stay with a corpse at home for hours as they have no car to transport the corpse to Gobabis,” said the concerned councillor.
He further noted that there have been recent cases where families had to stay with a corpse for twelve hours due to the lack of transport to Gobabis.
“Recently I had two separate incidents of a corpse at home for more than twelve hours until my intervention to transport the body to the mortuary in Gobabis,” said Katjizeu
Katjizeu urged private intervention to assist the government repair the mortuary.
“This is so much a big concern and I am urging private people to build a mortuary in Otjinene because the government mortuary does not function at all and the fixing process is at a snail’s pace,” he said.