UPDATE: Speculation abounds after child’s skeletal remains found on Durban’s Bluff
The workers found a few skeleton parts including a skull with teeth, jaw bone, ribs and parts of the spine.
WHAT is believed to have been a historical find has piqued the interest of the Bluff public, who have put forward many theories about a child’s skeletal remains which were found on Friday afternoon, 15 February and collected by police on Monday, 18 February.
READ: Desalination plant proposal remains in the pipeline
Charles Leaven, community liaison officer at the desalination plant where the remains were found, said the excavations were on the site of the desalination plant’s concrete base. “The workers were placing shutter boards to pour concrete in the northeastern corner of the site, when parts of the soil gradually collapsed, exposing the human remains,” he said.
READ: Child’s skeletal remains uncovered on Durban’s Bluff
They found a few skeleton parts including a skull with teeth, jaw bone, ribs and parts of the spine. “It did not look like an adult-sized skull but could be that of a child. We will only know after the investigation is complete,” he added.
Facebook commentators and posts in response to the initial article have seen people speculate about the possibility that the remains are perhaps those of one of the victims of 1980s paedophile Gert Van Rooyen, who was linked to the disappearance of six girls.
Yet others believe the remains could be well over a century old.
READ: Bluff skeletal find could be a century old
Councillor JP Prinsloo said the Bluff headlands, where the skeletal pieces were found, was used about 300 years ago to ship people from other African countries for slave labour purposes in Durban. “Many of them were transported from Zanzibar which is what led to the Zanzabarian land claim in Bluff Road. My suspicion with the skeletal remains they found is that it was probably from that era, because the Bluff headlands was where they kept the sick in quarantine,” he said.
WATCH:
DID YOU KNOW?
Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics.
To receive news links via WhatsApp, send an invite to 061 876 3179
The Southlands Sun is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest – why not join us there?
Do you have more information pertaining to this story?
Feel free to let us know by commenting on our facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist.
(Comments posted on this issue may be used for publication in the Sun)
