Wattville family find peace in Patricia’s burial
After months of waiting and three DNA tests being conducted, Patricia Phumzile Mkhulisi has been buried.
She is one of the 86 South Africans who were killed when the Synagogue Church of All Nations guest house, in Nigeria, collapsed.
The Mkhulisi family said they were relieved when they buried Patricia.
For months the family questioned whether the body they were given by government was really hers.
They claimed that Patricia had a gap between her teeth, but the body did not.
They refuted DNA results conducted by the government and decided to have their own private tests conducted.
The first private test found that the body given to the family was that of Patricia, but the family were still not convinced.
A second private test, conducted with Patricia son’s DNA, confirmed the first two results – that the body was Patricia’s.
Lwandle Mkhulisi, Patricia’s brother, said that, as a family, they had been in denial mode for the past three months.
“Within our culture we have to know who we are burying and we could not just bury the body, we had to make sure,” he explained.
Patricia’s mother has accepted her child’s burial and is now recovering.
The service took place at St Luke’s Methodist Church, in Wattville, and she was buried in the Van Dyk Park Cemetery, in Boksburg.
Her three brothers, two sons and mother have now started grieving.
“We are now moving towards a direction of peace,” said Lwandle.
“It is only sinking in now, for me, that she is gone, because cause I have been busy fighting to get the truth and now I know it is real.”
He said the family would like to thank everybody who supported them.
“We really hope such a incident does not happen again, and that no other family experiences such pain,” said Lwandle.
