4 000 unidentified bodies in State mortuaries in GP
JOBURG - More than 4 000 bodies in State mortuaries in Gauteng have not been identified in the past three years.
To address this ongoing problem, Gauteng Forensic Pathology Services is currently developing a new mortuary management system.
Gauteng MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, said identification of missing persons will be one of the functions of the new system.
“The Gauteng Forensic Pathology Services is currently developing a comprehensive mortuary management system which we expect to be complete in January 2016 and start the pilot phase the following month,” Mahlangu said.
She added that there were various factors that contributed to unidentified and unclaimed bodies. These included the nonexistence of authentic identification documentation, foreign nationals, South Africans from other provinces who travel without identity documents, and other socio-economic factors including financial constraints with burial costs and distance from family.
Number of unidentified and unclaimed bodies:
- 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 – 1 603 unidentified and 242 unclaimed
- 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 – 1 254 unidentified and 334 unclaimed
- 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 – 1 272 unidentified and 403 unclaimed.
The Springs mortuary has the highest number of unclaimed bodies over this period with 203, followed by Pretoria at 181, Roodepoort with 145 and 119 for Johannesburg.
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