A Limpopo family has spent the past two days sleeping in the car outside the Hillbrow government mortuary in Johannesburg while waiting for the body of their relative to be released.

By late yesterday they were still waiting for the strike-hit mortuary to release the body of Portia Phoswana, 26, who was hit by a car on Saturday.

Her father and siblings arrived in Johannesburg on Monday morning to make arrangements for her body to be taken home to Venda.

Her brother Tsieni Phoswana said yesterday: "We did not know about the strike and did not think that we would stay much longer in Johannesburg. We are just waiting."

Portia's father, who refused to give his name, said: "We have been sleeping in the car since Monday."

Families must cough up as much as R80‚000 in legal fees to have bodies of relatives released

Phoswana said they had been informed that there was a backlog of about 45-50 bodies at the mortuary.

"There are people helping but this is happening at a slow pace. We have to start making arrangements but we cannot do anything because the body has not been released." The family was meant to start preparing the grave site today.

The wait is making it more difficult for the family to deal with Portia's death. "The mourning period is prolonged. We are saddened by what is happening."

Meanwhile, the family of the blind marathon runner Richard Monisi, who died two weeks ago, only received his remains from the Diepkloof facility on Monday after days of waiting.

He was meant to be buried last week in Elim, Limpopo, but his funeral was postponed to this Saturday.

"We are relieved because it has been a very hurtful experience not being able to bury him on time. We could not even perform certain rituals we normally do when someone in the family dies," said his brother Lucky.

Gauteng health spokesman Khutso Rabothata said a special bargaining council would be sitting in Pretoria today to discuss the workers' concerns.