Johannesburg - Gauteng health department says it has more than 938 bodies across its mortuaries in the province.
The department says families and relatives are not coming forward to claim the bodies of their loved ones, despite the department urging families to come forward to claim their relatives.
The department is calling on families and relatives of missing persons to visit their forensic pathology services (FPS) mortuaries to check if their loved ones are not among the unclaimed and unidentified bodies.
“There are over 938 unclaimed and unidentified bodies across 11 FPS mortuaries that families and relatives have not come forward to claim,” the department said.
Pretoria has the highest number of claimed bodies at 263, Bronkhorstspruit, 8, Ga-Rankuwa, 69, Germiston,127, Heidelberg, 9, Sebokeng, 94, Springs, 49, Carletonville, 45, Diepkloof, 49, Johannesburg, 187, and Roodepoort, 38.
Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko said these numbers are concerning, adding that the department was “not coping” with these figures.
“There are families who have been looking for their loved ones, not knowing where they are. We encourage them to visit FSP mortuaries to check if their loved ones are among the unclaimed bodies, and if that is the case they can give them a proper burial,” the MEC said.
In 2021, the department said it would introduce a new and improved electronic system to help families identify and monitor loved ones who have died.
The department said this new system would solve the problem of the majority of unclaimed bodies that lay in various mortuaries in the province.
In 2021, the department recorded more than 1 173 unclaimed bodies, with Pretoria recording 117 of these as missing.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said if a body is not claimed within seven days, the department sends fingerprints to the criminal record centre as well as Home Affairs in the hope of identifying the bodies.
The results are then shared with the SAPS, as the deceased body is then in the possession of the SAPS, which must give the go-ahead for a pauper’s burial, she said.
The Star