Just three weeks into the job, the new manager at Woodbrook State Mortuary is on a mission to turn the institution around.
Last month, the Daily Dispatch reported on the terrible conditions at the morgue.
Overgrown grass, unkept storage rooms, blood splatters on walls and corpses stacked on the ground coolers were some of the problems identified by the Dispatch last month when the facility was visited.
In just less than a month Noluntu Mbananga has radically turned the place around and intends to do more.
Mbananga, 44, joined the department of health in 2006 when forensics was moved from the South African Police Services to the department of health. She had been a trained police officer who worked in HR.
Speaking to the Dispatch on Friday, Mbananga said nothing could have prepared her for the daunting task of managing Woodbrook which had been run by an inexperienced admin clerk on an acting basis.
“I had never seen anything like it. It was appalling. It was filthy, there was a terrible stench coming from the dissection area and it was generally in a bad shape,” she said.
Because of the state of the facility on her arrival, Mbananga requested the staff to join her in cleaning.
“I was here bright and early on a Monday morning wearing high heel shoes but things were so bad I asked everyone to join me to clean. I took the heels off, put on an overall and started the manual labour.
“We cannot work in a dirty place; we will get sick. Then we got a company to come in and deep clean,” she said.
Staff members have already seen the difference. They have described her a competent manager who is hands-on.
“When the company was here to clean, she stayed with them through the night. Because she has experience in forensics, she understands the complexity of our work,” the staff said.
Mbananga could only speak to the Dispatch in the afternoon because she was conducting post mortems in the morning.
She said her intention was to make the working conditions better.
“We have already started with the easy things like getting the grass cut, fixing the gate, getting the fence repaired and cleaning,” she said.
Mbananga has set a number of objectives which she hopes to achieve by year-end, including:
l Getting body cabinets installed;
l Improving staff moral;
l Getting staff paid whatever is owed to them; and
l Upgrading equipment
“It is difficult to work with an unhappy team. Things will get better, the facility will be revamped and my plan is that it will meet the standard of a private institution,” she said.
New morgue boss leads in clean-up Mbananga vows
Last month, the Daily Dispatch reported on the terrible conditions at the morgue.
Overgrown grass, unkept storage rooms, blood splatters on walls and corpses stacked on the ground coolers were some of the problems identified by the Dispatch last month when the facility was visited.
In just less than a month Noluntu Mbananga has radically turned the place around and intends to do more.
Mbananga, 44, joined the department of health in 2006 when forensics was moved from the South African Police Services to the department of health. She had been a trained police officer who worked in HR.
Speaking to the Dispatch on Friday, Mbananga said nothing could have prepared her for the daunting task of managing Woodbrook which had been run by an inexperienced admin clerk on an acting basis.
“I had never seen anything like it. It was appalling. It was filthy, there was a terrible stench coming from the dissection area and it was generally in a bad shape,” she said.
Because of the state of the facility on her arrival, Mbananga requested the staff to join her in cleaning.
“I was here bright and early on a Monday morning wearing high heel shoes but things were so bad I asked everyone to join me to clean. I took the heels off, put on an overall and started the manual labour.
“We cannot work in a dirty place; we will get sick. Then we got a company to come in and deep clean,” she said.
Staff members have already seen the difference. They have described her a competent manager who is hands-on.
“When the company was here to clean, she stayed with them through the night. Because she has experience in forensics, she understands the complexity of our work,” the staff said.
Mbananga could only speak to the Dispatch in the afternoon because she was conducting post mortems in the morning.
She said her intention was to make the working conditions better.
“We have already started with the easy things like getting the grass cut, fixing the gate, getting the fence repaired and cleaning,” she said.
Mbananga has set a number of objectives which she hopes to achieve by year-end, including:
l Getting body cabinets installed;
l Improving staff moral;
l Getting staff paid whatever is owed to them; and
l Upgrading equipment
“It is difficult to work with an unhappy team. Things will get better, the facility will be revamped and my plan is that it will meet the standard of a private institution,” she said.
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