IT'S been almost seven days since Nothini Pholoholo's baby girl died from respiratory problems, yet her body is still at the morgue because the family cannot afford to bury her.

The distraught and visibly distressed mother said her daughter, the youngest of her four children, has yet to receive her final farewell, because the family is having tremendous difficulties to pay for burial expenses.

"I am a single mother. I do not even have money to pay the mortuary," she said.

Pholoholo said the mortuary has requested a payment of R1000 for the release of the body or she will have to pay a storage fee.

The undertaker, she said, was not sympathetic towards her. He told her that she must "hurry with the payment as the area used for storage does not belong to her".

"I don't know where else to turn," Pholoholo said.

She will also need more money for the coffin and funeral arrangements.

She said the undertaker had urged her to try to get her daughter buried by Sunday.

"I appeal for help to bury my daughter ... anything that anyone can give me," she said.