Pastor buried after body spent 579 days in mortuary as family awaited his ‘resurrection’

A funeral home in South Africa was last week forced to obtain a court order to bury the body of a 53-year-old pastor that had stayed in the mortuary for close to two years.

Pastor Siva Moodley is said to have died on August 14, 2021, but his body remained preserved at a funeral home in Johannesburg as his family believed he would be resurrected.

The late Moodley - who founded 'The Miracle Centre - was laid to rest at Westpark Cemetery in the presence of his siblings and extended family, even though his wife and two children were not present.

According to Ryan Brown, a claims manager at the said funeral home, Gauteng High Court gave a go-ahead for the burial after the mortuary raised health concerns since the family had remained mum for over a year.

They said the family had failed to claim the body 579 days after the pastor died despite the funeral home making 28 attempts - including emails, more than 40 WhatsApp messages and attorney's letters - to contact Moodley's wife and children for instructions.

Court papers revealed that immediately after Moodley’s death in 2021, one of the church members asked the undertaker who went to retrieve the body about the duration it could be kept at home before it started to decompose.

The family was urged to take the body to the mortuary but later on, did not request or consent for the burial or cremation of their kin.

"They did not want to become involved to make arrangements for the funeral, however, the consequences regarding environmental health and hazard implications were explained to the first, second and third respondents if a burial was not arranged," read court documents, according to News24.

The deceased’s wife is said to have allegedly told the undertaker at the time that she had a vision her husband could be resurrected.

In line with Moodley's teachings and beliefs in his ministry, his website indicates that it is normal to see radical healings like blind eyes and deaf ears opening, legs growing, and cancers or tumours disappearing.

The website also records miraculous happenings in the past years. In 2003 for instance, it claims that one Caid Bailey was the first person to be raised from the dead during one of Moodley's meetings, and that a baby was also allegedly raised in 2013 after dying during childbirth.

The infant was allegedly “raised to life in a miracle service after Dr Siva prayed for the mother in a coma.”

Another supposed miracle was the "supernatural weight loss" where "kilograms instantly fell off people."