By John Harvey and Yolandé Stander

A GHOULISH trade in body parts is flourishing in the Eastern Cape and a lengthy investigation has revealed that rogue funeral parlours and staff at mortuaries are illegally removing joints, ligaments and corneas and selling them to “body-part brokers”.
While the researchers involved in the investigation – many of them with years of experience in the funeral and related industries – have yet to confirm the end destination of these remains, it is believed they are being sold to some medical companies which allegedly use them in transplant procedures and for medical research.
Investigators have already managed to secure secret voice recordings of funeral industry workers admitting they are engaged in the lucrative practice.
It has been established body-part brokers are operating freely in East London while recent information suggests Port Elizabeth has also become a hot spot for the trade.
The findings of the researchers into the body-part trafficking – who include Eastern Cape MPL and DA shadow health MEC John Cupido – come six years after the South African Council of Churches (SACC) released a dossier revealing rampant corruption at mortuaries, funeral parlours and crematoriums. According to one source in the investigation team, who has come across the bodyparts trade in various areas of the country, it is based on a “complex network”.
Among those involved are lower-level morgue workers, funeral parlours and medical companies. “It is a horrible practice and it is completely unregulated.
“I have found cases where leg bones are removed and replaced with parts of broomsticks,” the team member said. “Cornea are also in high demand. Because the corpse’s eyes are always closed during a funeral, workers at the funeral parlour or mortuary are able to remove the cornea and cover the socket with a plastic mould.
“It might take years before a health inspector comes round to investigate and so it is easy for them to get away with it. The funeral business is valued at R65-billion a year and it is not hard to see why.”
Researchers believe bodyparts are being sent illegally out of the country to as far as Europe and Asia for transplant and medical research purposes.
Cupido said “this horrendous industry has been allowed to thrive and grow through failure by the Health Department to implement proper security measures, operational policies and screening of qualified employees.
“I will be calling for this in the next sitting of the committee and submitting questions to the Health MEC to confirm this and supply firm deadlines.”
Eastern Cape Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo did not respond to Weekend Post’s questions.

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday May 5, 2012.