COPS BLOCK VIEWING OF ANOTHER CORPSE

MBABANE – Another family now alleges that they were not allowed to view the corpse of their son, an Ingatja, who allegedly died during the Incwala ceremony.

 Makabongwe Ndlovu (17) was struck by lightning after he took a bath while attending Lusekwane.
He was from Dvumbe which is situated near Sidvokodvo and is said to have died on the spot.

Our sister publication, the Swazi News, reported last Saturday that Lethumusa Ndlovu, a 16-year- old boy, died while attending the Incwala ceremony last month and his relatives were demanding answers from both the traditional authorities and police officers. This after they were told not to view the body  of the boy.

The two boys are not related as the parents stated that they did not know each other. The family alleged that apart from  being stopped from viewing the complete lifeless body of their son, they were forbidden from either touching or bathing it.

The coffin was brought along with the corpse by the police, and they said it was donated by the traditional authorities. The boy was laid to rest at his mother’s place at Mbelebeleni outside Hlatikhulu town centre. In the latest incident, Makabongwe had been attending the ceremony since he was eight years old, according to his father.

His family said they were informed that he had been bathing in the river with his peers and when they were done he decided to stay behind to wash some of his clothes but when he realised that a storm was approaching, he decided to run and catch up with his friends and that was when he was struck by the lightning.

Makabongwe, who was supposed to be sitting for his JC exams this year, passed away on December 28 and his family laid him to rest on January 7 at his parental home.
Sipho Ndlovu, Makabongwe’s father, said they were helped by  traditional authorities to cater for the funeral. On Tuesday evening, when Sipho was called, he spoke of the hurt the family was going through about the passing of his son. “We heard that he had finished bathing when he was struck by lightning. What happened to Lethumusa Ndlovu is exactly what happened to our family because we were not allowed to see his body.
“You should come here so we can tell you the whole story in the presence of my sisters who went to the mortuary. They will tell you every detail of what happened. Unfortunately, my wife is out of the country for the next two weeks and she will not be present,” Sipho stated in a telephone interview on Tuesday evening.
Bellinah Ndlovu, the boy’s aunt, said they were the ones who went to the mortuary after they were informed of the death to see their brother’s son. She stated that they saw half of his body from the waist upwards and they did not see his lower body. This is because they were allegedly blocked by the police from viewing the deceased.
“We did not wash the corpse ourselves as we were told at the mortuary that they would do that for us. His body was brought home in a coffin which was donated to us. We do not have any questions about his death because we took what we were told happened,” she said. The family went on to state that during the funeral, there were members of the security forces present.
Superintendent Khulani Mamba, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, said they never stopped the family from viewing the corpse.
However, he mentioned that if the family has unanswered questions, the police were ready to exhume the body. When contacted for comment on the matter, acting Ludzidzini Governor Timothy Velabo Mtsetfwa said he had no knowledge of such an incident up until he was told all about it by this publication.
“This is all news to me. No one reported anything of that sort to me. Maybe it was reported to the regiment leaders,” he said.
*Additional reporting by Bongiwe Dlamini

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