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A Grahamstown woman who faces a charge of violating a corpse, made a brief appearance in the city’s magistrate’s court on Friday.
The state alleges that Siyakubonga Funerals owner, Ronel Mostert (49), had ordered two of her employees to cut off the legs of a corpse with an angle grinder, allegedly because the corpse was too big for the coffin.
The matter reportedly came to light when Mostert was involved in a wage dispute with workers who then reported the incident to police.
Police spokesperson, Captain Mali Govender, said earlier that a case was opened last October following the exhumation of the body of Thamsanqa Tshali.
She said it’s alleged that because Tshali was too tall to fit into a coffin, Mostert had instructed the employees to cut off his legs.
Mostert arrived at court on Friday carrying a blanket and a large book .
Her case was transferred to another court because Magistrate Deon M Kotze recused himself from the matter.
The case was then postponed by Magistrate Sean Kelly to July 7 for pre-trial conference.
