No compassion and no respect shown.

To: Ms Minki Rasenyalo – the Executive Director and CEO of Doves Funerals And to: Mr Khandani Msibi – the Chairman of the board of directors of Doves Funerals I am writing to you to complain about the level of service my family and I received after the death of my mother on 3 July 2021, from the Innesdale Doves branch and specifically from the Innesdale Branchmanager and Senior Funeral Arranging Officer, a certain Natasha Rochelle Japhta. I will provide you with the facts and let you decide whether this type of service is what is needed in circumstances where a bereaved family has to depart with their deceased loved one. You can decide whether Natasha showed any compassion or care for our family. My opinion, however, is that her attitude and service was appalling, uncompassionate, uncaring, unprofessional, impersonal, chaotic, untruthful, unsympathetic, thoughtless, negligent and totally unacceptable. The following facts are relevant: 1. My mother, Ms HSM Saaiman, with identity number *** 080 passed away on 3 July 2021 in Groenkloof Life Hospital, Pretoria; 2. My father and mother resided in Rustenburg just prior to my mother’s death, but because of the Covid pandemic there were no beds available in the Rustenburg hospitals and we managed to arrange a hospital bed for her in Pretoria; 3. My mother was transported to Pretoria from Rustenburg on Friday evening the 2nd of July 2021 and passed away the next morning at about 8am; 4. Due to the lockdown restrictions and Gauteng’s borders being closed, we (my father and I) decided not to travel to Pretoria after the death of my mother as it would have served no purpose; 5. On Monday the 5th of July 2021, we went to the offices of your Rustenburg Branch and were informed that the Pretoria branch can take care of all the arrangements seeing that my mother’s body was in Pretoria. We were put in contact with Natasha Japhta and on the 5th of July she made contact with me and informed me that if I had any questions I can send her a WhatsApp message; 6. On the 8th of July, we couriered my mother’s original ID card to Natasha, because she requested it to obtain the death certificate from home affairs; 7. Also on the 8th of July, my father emailed the completed cremation forms to Natasha; 8. We heard nothing from her, until my father made enquiries on the 12th of July 2021, whereupon he was informed that she needed a copy of his ID card; 9. I immediately proceeded to WhatsApp, pictures of my father’s ID card to Natasha, using the number she provided me with and I asked her to let me know if she needed anything else from us. She did not reply; 10. On the 13th of July, I enquired whether she received my mother’s death certificate. She rep**** “Hi, who is this my phone crashed using my son’s phone”; 11. I immediately forwarded her my details and my mother’s and asked if she received my mother’s ID card. She informed me that their offices were closed due to the strike. Upon another prompt from me about my mother’s ID card, she affirmed that she received it; 12. I then forwarded the following message to her: “Okey. So can you just let me know what will be happening next? Is home affairs closed? Or when can we expect the death cert?” 13. She rep**** that we should wait until the next day, not providing me with any further information; 14. We received no information from her and on the 15th of July 2021, I send her a message to her requesting feedback in respect of my mom; 15. Her response was that I need to send her a copy of my father’s ID card to her email address “quite urgent”; 16. I was a bit confused as I already forwarded same to her on the 12th of July and on the 12th of July I asked her if she needed anything else and received no response; 17. On the 15th of July, I informed her that I forwarded same to her on the 12th of July and again sent it to her via WhatsApp; 18. She then informed me that she cannot download the photos from the phone that she was using and that I must email it to her. I immediately emailed copies of my father’s ID card to her; 19. On the 16th of July, I messaged her: “Morning Natasha. Please let me know what is the status with my mom’s body and arrangements?” 20. She rep**** that she will let me know; 21. Later the same day she informed me that she received the death certificate and asked if she should email it or courier it with the ashes. I asked her to email the death certificate on the 16th of July 2021 15:39 and I provided her with my email address; 22. Please take note that she did not answer any of my queries relating to what is happening with my mom’s body and further arrangements. We were kept in the dark; 23. I asked her on 16th of July at 15:39, if she can inform us when the cremation will be and she responded by saying: “Waiting on metropolitan with claim amount of the lady who assist is back Monday.” 24. On the 16th she said that she will certify the death certificate and send it to me and I rep**** that we need it to stop bank accounts and policies so she must please send it; 25. We did not received the death certificate via email as requested and promised; 26. On the 19th of July, Natasha informed me that the policy amount was just over R7 000.00 and that we needed to pay the outstanding amount. Upon asking her what the remaining amount is that needed to be paid she informed me that it was R9027 and that she will email my father and I the invoice; 27. I again requested her to send the death certificate via email on the 19th of July at 11:47 and she rep**** that she will. She gave no reason why she did not send it already, in light of the fact that I requested same on the 16th of July 2021; 28. I received nothing from her and on the 21st of July I asked if she had already emailed the death certificate. She rep**** at 13:14 that she will send it “now”, but that her email has got a “mind of its own today”; 29. By 14:24 on even date, I again requested the death certificate and at 15:23 she informed me that she already forwarded it to my father’s email address and that she will send it to me immediately; 30. My father received an email from Natasha on the 21st of July at 15:01 with an attachment and subject: Death Certificate HSM Saaiman. When the attached document was opened, however, it was not the death certificate of my mother, but in fact the death certificate of one Anna Petronella Shreuder with ID number *** 083; 31. I forwarded her a message after being notified that we received the wrong death certificate and asked her what was going on and why she forwarded the wrong documents; 32. Her response at 15:32 on 21 July 2021 was that she was in pain because she slammed her finger in the door and she proceeded to forward me two pictures of her fingers; 33. At last at about 15:35 on 21 July 2021, five days after I requested it from her, we received a copy of my mother’s death certificate via email; 34. We did not receive anything else from her, not even the invoice for the payment of the remainder of the money, until the 28th of July 2021 when she finally forwarded the invoice to my father. Please take not that this was 9 days after she promised to send us the invoice to enable us to make payment of the amount; 35. My father immediately paid the outstanding amount; 36. On the 28th of July at 07:18, I asked her if she can please inform us of the date of my mother’s cremation. I did not receive the courtesy of any response from her; 37. On the 3rd of August at 09:49, my father sent an email to Natasha stating that it was a month since his wife passed and still she has not been cremated. He requested information as to when the cremation will be; 38. A day later she rep****: “Hi uncle Derick. Was not in the office yesterday. She is gone for cremation.” 39. I do not know if the above message means anything to any of you, but to me it means that Natasha has a total disregard and disrespect for our family, showing zero compassion and zero care; 40. The questions that arise on the reading of her cryptic and careless email are: When did my mother’s body go to the crematorium? When will she be cremated? Has she already been cremated? Do we not have the right to know the date of cremation of our loved one? Is this such a very unimportant matter that we can be informed simply that my mother’s body has gone for cremation without any details of whatsoever nature? Why does she show this total lack of common decency towards us? 41. Upon receiving this information from my father, I messaged her on 4 August asking: “Is my mom’s cremation today?” 42. She did not respond and an hour later I prompted her again whereupon she rep**** “she has gone let me find out the date” and that she was busy with 4 families; 43. I received no information from her in respect of my mother’s cremation, notwithstanding the fact that I made two further enquiries on the 4th of August, which she simply ignored; 44. On the 5th of August at 07:14 and again at 09:38 I messaged her and asked if she could please give us the date of my mother’s cremation; 45. She did not respond and at 14:54 I phoned her. She told me telephonically that she is waiting for some lady and that she will phone me back before 16:30 on the 5th of August to tell me when my mother will be cremated; 46. She did not phone me as promised and at 16:51 I phoned her. She acted surprised to hear from me when she answered the call and said that she totally forgot to phone me, but that she has not received the date of my mother cremation and that I must phone her the 6th of August at 08:30 when she will be in a position to provide me with the information; 47. On the 6th of August at 08:30 I attempted to phone her, but she cancelled all my calls. I phoned her 8 times without any success; 48. My husband proceeded to phone Doves customer care line on 6 August 2021 at approximately 08:40 and he informed the person he spoke to that he demands answers and that we must be given feedback as to what is going on and why we are being ignored and not provided with information; 49. At 08:54 on 6 August, Natasha phoned me from a landline and told me that my mother was already cremated the previous day and that she will be receiving the ashes later the same day whereupon I will be informed to collect same; 50. I have to say that I was too shocked to even respond to her nonchalant manner in which she informed me that my mother was cremated without us even knowing. Did we as a family not deserve the dignity to know the date and time of cremation, to be able to sympathise and be together in thought at the hour of cremation? Were we unreasonable to expect that the funeral services we paid for would at least have had the common decency to inform us of this very obvious and important fact? On Doves Funerals webpage it is advertised that the Doves’ mission is delivering a service as a celebration of life to all your stakeholders, clients and employees. The Doves’ values are publicised to be: o Honesty & Trust o Passion to Serve o Respect

We as a family did not experience the above mission or values at all. To deal with Natasha in our time of need and sorrow has been extremely frustrating and her attitude and conduct has added to our trauma instead of providing comfort and assistance.

Natasha van Niekerk