The Ngqezana family in Port Elizabeth (PE), South Africa, says it is shocked after it received the body of someone who died from Covid-19, rather than their relative.

The family said the undertaker ripped the plastic open to show them the body - and it was not their loved one. 

"They brought us the wrong body of a person who died from Covid-19 and when we pointed out that our brother did not die from Covid-19, they ripped the plastic open and made us view the highly contagious body, we were exposed to Covid-19."

Those were the words of a devastated Kayise Ngqezana whose family has found itself having to organise a second funeral service in 24 hours after a body mix-up by a leading funeral home, they say.

The Ngqezana family, in Port Elizabeth, said they were shocked when the company Avbob apparently brought a body wrapped in a plastic-coated coffin at the Forest Hill cemetery during a funeral on Sunday.

"The plastic meant the body was highly-contagious and the person had died from Covid-19. We knew then that they brought us the wrong body because my brother died from diabetes. We couldn't bury him. They insisted on opening the plastic and made us view the body," said Kayise Ngqezana.

Five family members including the deceased's children viewed the body and all concluded that it was not Lulamile Ngqezana's.

The family discovered during the funeral service that the correct body was somewhere on the road outside Butterworth being transported to another funeral some 350km away.

Lulamile Ngqezana, 62, was the deputy principal and English teacher at Eluthatheni secondary school in kwa Bhaca, formerly Mount Frere.

Ngqezana had died in kwa Bhaca in the former Transkei and the parlour was instructed to bring the body to Port Elizabeth for burial.

"Their negligence resulted in this chaos. This is a crisis. Who knows how many families buried wrong bodies because of these blunders?

"Today we are organising another funeral. Yesterday we had a funeral service, but it was cancelled due to this blunder. There were too many blunders yesterday because the funeral parlour also did not even give us a register so that we can list down all the names of the mourners," said Ngqezana.