Durban - Incorrect death certificates have cost a Port Shepstone resident thousands of rand before they were corrected and re-issued.
Following up on an IOS story last week which highlighted Durban pensioner Gourie Bryce’s dilemma when her husband’s death certificate incorrectly stated he was divorced, Bryan Lind said both his mother and great-aunt’s certificates had the incorrect marital status on their death certificates.
Both women were widows but their death certificates, when first issued, read “married not widow”.
In June 2019, Lind’s mother died and, after receiving the first incorrect certificate, he had to pay for a second death certificate which had the corrected status of “widow”. Again, in March 2021 when his great-aunt died, hers also had to be corrected.
The first correction was done within two weeks and in the second matter, it took from March 2021 to the end of June 2021.
Lind said: “This has led to huge costs and monetary ‘loss’ to the beneficiaries as they resided in a sectional title unit and the other had a life right unit ‒ all levies had to be legally paid, which is a complete loss of monies.
“The ‘hassles’ on getting these death certificates corrected is a huge stress on anybody. Only then may you apply to the Master (of the High Court) and only then will the nominated Executor start to move.
“The time delays are extremely lengthy and absolutely unacceptable to the law-abiding citizens of our country,” said Lind this week, adding his family had to pay all the relevant costs upfront.
These included costs such as levies for the properties, rates, insurances, as well as burial fees.
As in the events related by Bryce when trying to get her husband’s death certificate corrected and was told “not to worry, it happens all the time’, Lind said: “We were told this is not unusual.
“To sort this out, we also had to take time off work. There are major problems at Home Affairs. We are all taxpayers, but with government departments, there’s no accountability”, Lind said. He confirmed he had paid for the corrected death certificates to be issued.
Bryce told the IOS last week that when her husband James died in October last year, she was shocked to receive his death certificate which had his marital status as “divorced”.
Bryce said they had been married for more than 30 years and despite repeated emails and visits, his death certificate has yet to be corrected.
Bryce had gone to the High Court where she got a letter confirming there was no record of divorce between herself and her husband. She had also submitted an affidavit to Home Affairs confirming their marriage.
This week, Bryce said she had been told she would have to pay for a corrected death certificate to be issued.
“It’s not just a matter of the costs involved, it’s about the inconvenience, the delays, not getting the proper department to solve the issue, the time wasted to and fro and not receiving any correspondence from the department,” she said.
Once again, in spite of emails and WhatsApp requests for comment, the Department of Home Affairs did not respond.
The Independent on Saturday