The founder of the Miracle Center in north Johannesburg, Siva Moodley, has been buried 579 days after his death.

The 53-year-old South African pastor died of illness on August 15, 2021, but his body was kept in the morgue until 2023.

In his sermons, he often addressed his conviction that “no Christian should die from sickness”.

However, Moodley’s family had his body placed in a Johannesburg morgue after his death in hopes that he would be brought back to life.

According to IOL, his family and church members used to go to the burial home hoping for his resurrection, but after two years of fruitless waiting, they gave up.

Martin du Toit, the current director of the funeral house, applied to the Magistrates’ Court of Johannesburg for permission to bury or cremate Moodley.

However, the court had not set a date for the case hearing.

It was learned that while his remains stayed conserved, church services were being held as usual and are being conducted by his wife Jessie, son David and daughter Kathryn Jade.

Although services are still streamed online, the church has been accused of failing to update members of his whereabouts and failing to publicly mourn his death on social media.

Moodley’s social media profiles remain active, particularly his Facebook and Twitter profiles, where he regularly uploads and tweets messages that appear to be from him.

Miracle Center employees declined to comment when approached by local media, citing a policy barring them from doing so.