A Soweto family spoke of their frustration and pain as they were forced to spend hours with the body of their loved one in the house as violent protests hit their area this week.
A relative, who asked that she and the deceased family member not be named, said her granny died at about 6.45am on Tuesday at her home in Protea Glen.
She said she called Emergency Medical Services at 7am to come certify her granny dead, but no-one arrived.
After two hours of waiting, she said she called again and the emergency services personnel said an ambulance had been dispatched.
“The EMS people said that the other ambulance services must have been stopped by the violent protest taking place in Soweto,” Ntombi said.
This week, the Gauteng department of health said health services were affected by the violent protests over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court.
Premier David Makhura's spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga said health services were affected because of limited access to parts of the province due to the protests, among other challenges.
“EMS teams are experiencing difficulty in responding to distress calls in communities due to limited access,” Mhaga said.
The woman said when she realised that the ambulance was taking long to arrive, she called a former colleague who works in emergency services for help.
The ex-colleague spoke to his friends who were only able to get to the house at about 3pm and certified her grandmother dead.
She said the funeral parlour arrived at 3.47pm, adding that staying with her granny's body in the house for such a long time was painful.
“It was experience. Now and again we would walk past her bedroom and she lay there silently for all those hours. It was not nice, I do not want to lie.
“The situation was also complicated because my daughter was around. She is 13 years old. She now and again went to the bedroom to check her [great grandmother] and would look at her as she lay on the bed. It was traumatic,” she said.
Families have taken to social media to share their frustrations, with speaking of how they had been forced to keep the bodies in the house overnight.
Most of them did not respond to requests for interviews.
The woman said the family was struggling to get access to cash and food in preparation for the funeral as malls in the township were looted and ATMs vandalised.
Most banks announced that their branches would be closed due to the unrest.
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