Amien Staggie, 51, of Salt River, passed away of natural causes last Friday.
But his family was unable to bury him immediately because Salt River morgue wouldn’t release the body until they produced a valid identity document.
Amien was the youngest brother of twins Rashied and Rashaad, former leaders of the notorious Hard Livings gang.
Rashaad was fatally shot and set alight by Pagad in Salt River in 1996.
Rashied, 60, was released from prison in 2013 after serving nine years for weapons theft.
According to the family, there were 22 siblings in total, and only 12 remain.
Amien’s daughter Natasha Staggie tells Daily Voic e being Muslim, her father should have been
buried on Friday already.
She says just having her father’s identity document number was not enough.
A desperate Natasha says she sought help from Home Affairs and the police, until a detective finally assisted her, and they were able to obtain an abridged birth certificate.
She says they were unable to find her father’s ID at home.
“I asked for advice on how to go about the entire procedure and really only got assistance when the detective was able to trace a copy of my dad’s ID,” Natasha said yesterday.
She finally got a new abridged birth certificate for her father, and early yesterday, they were able to get her dad’s body and transport it to the family home in Mitchells Plain.
“Three days it took them. My family are more in shock at the way we were treated and my dad’s right to an immediate burial,” adds Natasha.
Principal Communications Officer for Emergency Medical and Forensic Pathology Services (FPS) in the province, Robert Daniels explains: “We have unfortunately placed much stricter measures in place before releasing bodies of the deceased due to an increase in burial and insurance fraud on both a provincial as well as national level.
“If the family can’t provide identification documents for the deceased, Western Cape Government Health FPS is mandated by SAPS to identify the deceased by fingerprint identification and if that does not provide the required results we turn to DNA identification.
“This obviously takes time and in these cases between three and five days.”
According to Natasha, her dad spent 11 years in jail for housebreaking and car theft, and was released in 1999.
The janaazah of Mogamat Amien Staggie, named Gamat Ahmien on his new abridged birth certificate, was finally held yesterday afternoon.