UPDATE: Groutville “dead woman” has no relief

It is now 12 months that a Groutville senior citizen has not been getting her pension because she is registered as dead.

As reported in The Courier last November, grandmother Busisiswe Duma (77) was shocked last April when she went to collect her old age grant from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offices in KwaDukuza, only to be told she could not collect it because she had died.

She was told that she must go to Home Affairs and that was where she was given all the details about her so-called death. She was told to re-apply for an ID – which she did – but no help has been given to her.

“This is causing me sleepless nights. I am very old and I can’t work. I depended on my grant for food and personal needs. I am struggling to cope with life,” said Duma.

She lives alone, though her unemployed daughter visits her now and then.

“My daughter stays with her boyfriend and she only gives me the little financial support she gets from her boyfriend. My former employer, Earnie Jones, is also helping me to survive,” said Duma.

Duma said she has also lost her copy of her life policy with the Isithebe Burial Society. Approached last November, the burial society was aware that Duma was still alive and they had not paid out the policy.

However, on Monday this week a society employee, Mpume Mpanza, said Duma must pay R300 to rejoin.

“We are aware that she is still alive but because she did not report immediately after her grant was cut off, the money is required for her policy to be opened again. No one was paid out for her so-called death,” said Mpanza.

Duma was handed a ‘notice of death’ form which states that she died from gastroenteritis in the Mandeni area in March 2015. The death notice bears the name, signature and stamp of the attending doctor and district surgeon, Dr Aumesh Harilall of 19 Cato St, KwaDukuza, on March 16, 2016. Another form states that her body was collected by Okasihlaba Funeral Services on the same day.

In the file is a copy of the ID of the person who reported Duma’s death, 29-year-old Mandisa Gcwabaza. Duma said she had never seen her before. Duma said she did open a case of theft with KwaDukuza SAPS but was not given a case number.

Dr Harilall said he did indicate on the form that the body’s face does not seem to match the person on the ID photo.

“That is where my job ends. Those documents are given to my client and they take it to Home Affairs,” said Harilall.

No trace of Okasihlaba Funeral Services has been found.

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