Groutville ‘dead woman’ is ‘alive’ again

The infamous “dead woman” of Groutville is finally officially alive again and will be one of the many pensioners to collect her grant on April 1.

However, she will only be paid for the last three months and not the full 14 months that are owed to her.

As reported in The Courier last November, grandmother Busisiswe Duma (77) was shocked when she went to collect her pension from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offices in KwaDukuza last April, 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 on her ‘death’.

She was told to re-apply for an ID – which she did.

Duma was handed a ‘notice of death’ form which states that she died from gastroenteritis in the Mandeni area in March 2015. Another form states that her body was collected by Okasihlaba Funeral Services on the same day. No trace of Okasihlaba Funeral Services have been found.

Duma collected her ID at the KwaDukuza Home Affairs offices last week and her daughter, Thandi Mzimela, confirmed that her mother had collected her grant card last Friday.

“Thank you to all the people who worked hard to ensure that my mother gets her grant back. Thank you so much,” said Mzimela.

As much as Duma is happy, she is still unsure why she will only be paid for the last three months.

“We believe she needs to be paid for all the 14 months that she did not collect her grant. However, we are happy that she will get the grant rather than not getting paid at all,” said Mzimela.

Duma had 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, the society’s employee, Mpume Mpanza, recently said that Duma must pay R300 to re-join.

“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.

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