Buhle Bhengu’s autopsy results to be released. Her sister, Mbali, said they returned on Wednesday from fetching her ashes after the Bahamian government refused to repatriate her body.
The Bhengu family of uMlazi, south of Durban, will know in two weeks the cause of their daughter’s death in the Bahamas.
Buhle Bhengu, 29, fell ill on the Caribbean island last month while working as a bartender on an MSC cruise ship.
Mbali said they arrived on Sunday and viewed the body.
“There was an official from the Department of International Relations and Co-operation and two Bahamian government officials. We only saw her face and they took her away to be cremated. We were told we would get the autopsy results in two weeks,” Mbali said.
When Bhengu died, the family were told her body could not be sent back to South Africa for fear that she had died of an infectious disease.
The National Funeral Practitioners’ Association of SA (Nafupa) tried to help the Bhengus to get the body back to the country but failed.
At the time, Nafupa president Muzi Hlengwa had said the Bahamian government had agreed for the body to be returned. The stumbling block was that America did not want it flown through its borders.
While negotiations were initiated with the UK to fly the body through its borders, the Bahamian government did a U-turn, saying it did not have qualified personnel to provide a zinc-lined coffin.
The family later gave in to the cremation. Bhengu’s ashes will be buried in uMlazi on Saturday.
Source: IOL News
