Police give man pauper’s funeral while his family wait 2 years for DNA results

After waiting two years for their son’s DNA test results that police kept from them, the Chamane family’s preparation for final closure were thwarted again after Hammarsdale officers informed them that Sibongankosi was buried in 2021 already, 700km away in Nkomazi.

The family’s ordeal and ill treatment by the local police officers started in 2020, after Sibongankosi Khethuthula Chamane, 25, was found murdered two weeks after he went missing in March, a few days before the country was plunged into the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Throughout this time, Sibongankosi’s mother Khosi carried the pain of not being able to bury her son, despite positively identifying him at the mortuary.

Police insisted on a DNA tests, and the family obliged.

The family routinely went to the police station for the past two years, looking for Sibonginkosi’s DNA results, but were told they were not yet available every time. They were never provided with a case number throughout the nightmare.

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‘This is criminal’

Following The Citizen inquiries put through to the provincial police headquarters, the family was shown the test results last month. which confirmed the remains were Sibongankosi’s.

It turned out that the results were released in May 2021 already. While getting ready to receive the remains, they were told that Sibongankosi was buried in August last year in Nkomazi.

Provincial police at the time blamed this on poor communication and promised to resolve the matter, but Hammarsdale police gave the family the runaround again, and wouldn’t produce the young man’s remains.

The latest police bungling has traumatised the family again, said Khosi.

“Why me? What is it that my family did wrong? Police kept coming to my home, making excuses about my son’s body… making me sign papers that were never explained to us. There is something going on, I suspect a criminal act by police.

“No one can explain to me why my son was buried in Nkomazi in 2021 when we waited for DNA results that were being kept at the police station. I want to know who gave permission to have Sibongankosi buried as a pauper,” she said, speaking in isiZulu.

Nontobeko, the sister to the late Sibongankosi, said all she wanted was to bury her brother and find closure following his unexplained murder.

“I no longer cry… I am just angry. I am angry at the system that undermines the poor and black, I am angry at Hammarsdale police who hid DNA results from us and transporting my brother’s body far away for burial without any feedback to us.

“This is criminal. Someone did this for reasons only known by them. I fear for my mother because she’s an elder, this has been eating away at her.”

Internal police probe

A week after The Citizen sent detailed questions to KwaZulu-Natal police communication unit, spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said the officer who was initially charged with the investigation has been replaced and faces an internal investigation.

“A new investigating officer was assigned to investigate the matter further and he is in contact with the family to assist in terms of the investigation and the process of exhumation of the body. Unfortunately we cannot comment further as investigations are at the sensitive stage,” she said in an email.

Gwala had no answers as to why the body ended up being buried in Nkomazi, or who authorised the burial.

As the family await Sibonginkosi’s remains to be brought home, Nontobeko asserted that local police infringed on his brother’s rights.

“My brother’s human rights have been trampled upon… I am yet to come across this kind of trauma from government.”

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