More than 3 000 unclaimed bodies lie in mortuaries nationwide

Mortuaries

Cape Town — Authorities are concerned over the number of unclaimed and unidentified bodies at mortuaries with more than 3 000 bodies currently unclaimed nationwide.

Sibongesi Dhlomo, chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee, revealed that 3 186 unclaimed bodies are currently lying in government mortuaries in South Africa, with more than 2 000 in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape alone, IOL reported.

“As of August 2024, a staggering 3 186 bodies remain unclaimed nationwide, with KwaZulu-Natal accounting for 1,527 cases, while the Eastern Cape has 526,” Dhlomo said.

The Committee said it received a briefing from the Department of Health on the status of the unclaimed bodies, with the Department saying there are several factors contributing to the increase of unclaimed bodies.

“According to the department, these factors include community-related issues and municipal and provincial challenges,” Dhlomo explained. Other challenges include delays in collecting DNA, insufficient burial sites and the safety of workers.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) expressed concern by the statistics presented by the committee, especially the figures in KZN and the Eastern Cape.

“This is a basic identification problem, which we should be able to take care of. The assumption would be, these individuals are of South African origin, we would be able to trace their fingerprints using basic fingerprint scanning,” ATM spokesperson, Zama Nthsona told Newzroom Afrika.

He added that the systems are not able to deal with the current challenges faced and believes there is no proper way to deal with the issues that are function to deal with the problem.

Dr Thakadu Mamashela, chairperson of the committee, emphasised the need to address the root causes in an interview with Newzroom Afrika. He said the unclaimed bodies affect societies.

“If the mortuary space is occupied by 50 bodies lying there, the bodies that are coming in on a day-to-day basis, you have compromised them. For example, in Limpopo, there was a bus accident on the N1 in Makhado. Unfortunately, when that happened, the designated facility was already overwhelmed in terms of the number of bodies lying there,” he said.

Mamashela said this may affect the quality of service provided to families.

“We had to make plans to store the bodies because remains must be handed over in a dignified manner. So that is the main problem we’re having. Another problem is the exposure of our staff to infectious diseases.”

Mamashela stressed the importance of families immediately reporting missing persons to the police.

“The police have a missing persons bureau that needs to be used effectively. Families should also visit forensic pathology services with any documentation or photographs they may have.”

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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