JOHANNESBURG– The Thekiso family of Wattville, east of Johannesburg, are grappling with immense grief and disbelief after an error by B3 Funeral Parlour led to the mistaken cremation of their mother. The family, already in mourning, was devastated when they arrived to collect their loved one’s body, only to be informed that she had been inadvertently cremated.

Bella Malaka, a distraught relative, recounted the traumatic revelation: “We were called to a boardroom and they told us they have cremated the wrong body. When we asked for more clarity, we were told somebody called and told the funeral parlour to cremate her. I was so sad and shattered. This affected me so much to an extent that I lost my mind. I don’t even know how I managed to get into the car coming back home.”

B3 Funeral Parlour has acknowledged the grievous mistake and extended an apology to the family. The executive head, Isaac Mamotsau, explained that an internal investigation revealed the tags used to identify the deceased had been mixed up by the morticians. “Our investigations revealed that the greatest mistake, an error. We apologize for what occurred. When we removed the bodies from the cold rooms for the preparations, the tags on the body were actually removed. The bodies went for the preparations and the tags remained in the cold rooms and when we returned the bodies to the cold rooms the tags were mixed up. The tag that was meant for body cremation was placed on a body that was not meant to be cremated,” said Mamotsau.

The funeral parlour has offered to compensate the Thekiso family, but the emotional toll of the incident remains immeasurable. The mix-up has sparked calls for improved processes and more stringent checks to prevent such devastating errors in the future.