Durban?s Gale Street Mortuary is overcrowded and workers there have threatened to go on strike if something is not done, KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said on Tuesday.

"The mortuary is supposed to accommodate 160 bodies, but it has over 180 bodies. This has forced the staff to put some bodies on the stretchers," Dhlomo told journalists after visiting the mortuary on Tuesday night.

He visited the mortuary after workers allegedly threatened to strike if something was not done. He said the problem was bodies not being claimed by relatives.

"We have 24 bodies that have not been claimed. We have taken a decision that they should be buried properly so that we can show the relatives [where the grave is] when they end up coming," he said.

It emerged during the visit that some bodies had not been claimed since 2008. Dhlomo said the government did not immediately bury unidentified bodies, as officials first tried to locate the relatives.

Some of the bodies were being moved to the Phoenix Mortuary to alleviate overcrowding. This had caused confusion, as some people who arrived at Gale Street to collect their relatives were apparently told the bodies were lost.

"There was a family that thought that their baby had gone missing. We have since told them that the body is in Phoenix."