DAVHANA – "We are apologising to the Mabunda family and the community at large for all the disruptions and inconvenience that we have caused during the past two weeks," said Mr Danie van Niekerk, director of National Legal Aid Funeral Service, Louis Trichardt branch.

"We acknowledge that it is very painful not to bury your beloved one in time, and as such I would like to express my apologies to the family and to the whole community for all that we have done. It is a big mistake and we promise that such a mistake would never be repeated," he said.

He further stated that the problem occurred, after the parlour's employee, who collected the corpses, failed to put nametags to the bodies of Ms Mabunda (Davhana) and Ms Maluleke (Olifantshoek) at their death's scenes, because they were collected the same day. As a result, the employee put the name tags late at the mortuary and erroneously mixed-up the tags. "Our service is simple and understandable, that is why we put customers first and this kind of mistake can happen at any funeral parlour company if the workers fail to identify the corpse properly" he explained.

He added that he is promising people good service in all funerals and people must forget about the past and focus on tomorrow.

National Legal Aid is a well-known funeral parlour all over the Limpopo Province and the majority of its clients are old aged pensioners who pay their contributions at their pay points. National Legal Aid is known as the experts in conducting funeral services.

The family's spokesperson Mr Khwara "Shuffle" Nenngwekhulu, who said that he is now a happy man after he found the body of his grandmother at last. "It was a tough job, it wasn't easy for us to find the corpse. We first went to the Hlanganani Magistrate's court where we got the exhumation order and again we sought permission from the Maluleke family to exhume the grave in the presence of the police and our civic last Thursday," he said.

He added that he was suspicious when they entered at the Olifantshoek Cementry where they exhumed only one grave where they found their granny's body. He further stated that the parlour showed them undivided remorse and they compensated them with R30 000 that will repair all the losses that the family came across. "We buried our beloved Granny last Saturday at her home village and I hope that she will rest in peace. We as a family, have forgiven the parlour," he said.