4000 Bodies unidentified and unclaimed in Gauteng
HONEYDEW – Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu plans to address the ongoing problem of unclaimed bodies through introducing a new system.
In the past three years more than 4 000 bodies in Gauteng were unclaimed, numbers which have risen from 242 in 2012 and 403 last year.
Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said that to address the ongoing problem of unclaimed and unidentified bodies at state mortuaries they have implemented solutions to deal with the problem.
“The Gauteng Forensic Pathology Services is currently developing a comprehensive mortuary management system. Identification of missing persons will be one of the functions of the new system,” Mahlangu said.
Mahlangu also spoke about the reasons that contributed to unidentified and unclaimed bodies such as non-existence of authentic identification documentation, foreign and South African nationals who travel without identity documents and families not claiming bodies due to lack of resources, finances and distance from the family.
The statistics are as follows:
April 2012 to March 2013 – 1 603 unidentified and 242 unclaimed.
April 2013 to March 2014 – 1 254 unidentified and 334 unclaimed.
April 2014 to March 2015 – 1 272 unidentified and 403 unclaimed.
The Springs mortuary currently has the highest number of unclaimed bodies during this period (203), followed by Pretoria (181), Roodepoort (145) and Johannesburg (119).
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health Jack Bloom said that the Gauteng Health Department has been struggling since 2006 to develop an internet system that will assist people in identifying bodies.
“I hope that an internet system is implemented soon so that bodies can be identified in this way rather than relatives going to each mortuary. Which is very traumatic and time consuming,” Bloom said.
