The Lusaka City Council (LCC) has dismissed claims by some sectors of society that it was the council’s responsibility to bury unclaimed bodies.
Council Public Relations Manager said Chanda Makanta said it was the responsibility of the University Teaching Hospital ( UTH) and the Social Welfare.
Ms. Makanta told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today, that the council only provides labour, transport and identifying the piece of land or cemetery that could be used to bury the unclaimed bodies from hospital.
The Council Public Relations Manager said it was very unfortunate that some sectors of society think that the Local authority was responsible to bury unclaimed bodies.
Ms. Makanta urged those that think that it is the Council’s responsibility to bury unclaimed bodies to do their research well.
She has since said the Council was open to UTH if the health institution needed assistance in terms of provision of logistical support.
ZANIS/AJN/MKM/ENDS
Now just wrangling between two institutions wont solve a thing whilst the Mortuaries are in deplorable conditions. Improve those morgues first and start your arguments. Some one between the two of you has to do the job.
I would suggest they first work on cutting down the number of deaths in the country before talking about mortuaries. It doesn’t make sense at all if they keep arguing about the later without correcting the root cause.
Have a blessed day, Cutey/Wifey
Thanks Ba Moderator.
This issue is mind boggling..If U.TH. was given burial grounds there could be no fracas at all. Now the owners of the land LCC are shaking their shoulders and heads…..besides that there should be logistics of statistical appendices of all Zambian citizens of which LCC has a major role to play e.g.. registration of births and deaths and LCC has a major role to play. .
Fighting the number of deaths is not possible anywhere as some deaths are natural. In Zambia there is HIV/AIDS epidemic , in developing countries cancer cases are on the increase, I suppose its a natural phenomenon for one to die. Many blessings to you Ba Moderator and Gday.
Cutey/Wifey, good morning. Yep, I am one of those that believe that councils should bury unclaimed bodies. After all, the cemetaries are under their custody.
Goodmorning to you Lusaka and Thanks.
I do not see why they should be washing dirty linen in public when both their services are shoddy.Those unclaimed bodies are humans who should be respected no matter what their status was.They are busy bickering instead of finding solutions to the problem at hand. e.g tracing the relatives, family and friends of those unclaimed bodies.
And you are right, the cemetaries are not under UTH. LCC wants to push the buck and their inefficiencies to someone else.
If I were you, Lusaka, I would suggest a very simple and logic solution to the wrangle.
1. The UTH cremate the bodies right in their back yard, then the council takes care of the ashes.
Enjoy your day.
UTH’s job should end at treatment.Owners of cementuries must bury.
UTH, Councils, Social Welfare AND RELATIVES! should bury. UTH, when the morgues are full should do the needful. Social Welfare should also come in for the poor. The Relatives should not neglect their own, it is inhuman. Even if there is poverty, we have seen situations where neighbours go from house to house asking for mealie meal! There is nothing to be ashamed of in the shanties. They are actually united.
Mrs makanta is right. Its not LCC’S responsibility to bury unclaimes bodies. That falls under the social welfare ministry. The council only provides logistical support in terms of transport and the provision of a burying site.
baby c, ulishani mwana, lng time. but why do we have unclaimed bodies?? i fell to understand, when some one is missing, arent relatives suppose to go asking evry where….
both the institutions shud work hand in hand….elo this PR chick should just kep her mouth shut!
Hela mama! long time wee! missed you mwana! Kaya mwand khani yama unclaimed bodies.Mwana any news on red lipstick??
Happy Wednesday Baby C
Like I said in my earlier post the UTH can simply play the role of a cremationist while the council would be the cremator. More over, with all due respect, we really don’t need waste land by increasing cemetries.
Does Social Welfare still exist in Zambia?. I thought they only functioned during the Kaunda Era. If they exist then they are getting paid for nothing. All these street kids fall under their umbrella, and look at the mushrooming of these sreet kids day in and day out.
Rupiah should know better. He was there during the Kaunda days and he is currently running the show. He is the right person to ask.
It is very much alive under the ministry of community development and social welfare. The trouble is instead of the needy benefiting from this ministry, only the well to do as usual have an advantage. Think of the bursaries at UNZA a poor fellow may not be given at the expense of minister’s children. God help Zambia.
I think Ronnie should berry them afterall he looks like a malukula