Gauteng Families With Missing Relatives Urged to Contact Mortuaries As Over 900 Bodies Remain Unclaimed

• The Gauteng Health Department revealed that more than 900 bodies lie unidentified or unclaimed in the provinces mortuaries
• Pretoria has the most unclaimed and unidentified remains, followed closely by Johannesburg and Germiston
• The health department exhausts multiple means of identification before giving the unclaimed bodies a pauper's burial

JOHANNESBURG - The number of unidentified bodies laying in Gauteng mortuaries has pushed the province's health department to call on families with missing loved ones to come forward.

The health department's forensic pathology services (FPS) has 938 remains that are unidentified and unclaimed in 11 mortuaries across Gauteng.

Pretoria has the highest number of unclaimed bodies, followed by Johannesburg and Germiston

Pretoria is leading the Gauteng cities with the highest number of unclaimed and unidentified bodies sitting at 263.

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The city of Johannesburg follows the north Gauteng city with 187. Other mortuaries in Germiston are housing 127 unclaimed bodies, TimesLIVE reported.

The rest of the unclaimed and unidentified bodies are in the following areas:

• Sebokeng: 94
• Ga-Rankuwa: 69
• Springs: 49
• Diepkloof: 49
• Carletonville: 45
• Roodepoort: 38
• Heidelberg: 9
• Bronkhoestspruit: 8

What happens when a body goes unidentified or unclaimed for an extended period?

Gauteng health department spokesperson Mataletale Modiba said that when bodies remain unidentified or unclaimed for more than seven days, fingerprints are sent to the SAPS criminal record centre or Home Affairs for identification.

Once the body has been identified, the next of kin are contacted for release, burial or cremation.

When the body goes unidentified for 30 days, the deceased is given a pauper's burial with other unclaimed bodies. A small marble tombstone marks the graves with a number that corresponds with a file number in case the body is claimed or identified post-burial, IOL reported.

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South Africans shocked by number of unclaimed and unidentified bodies in Gauteng

Some citizens commented on the trauma families go through when identifying their missing loved ones.

Below are some comments:

@Gilly_Majaivan said:

"There's nothing more traumatising and painful than looking for a loved one at a government morgue. You have to go through every corpse to identify them."

@Jason_Flye exclaimed:

"Imagine your family being 'urged' to come fetch your body!"

@BlueNip asked:

"That's really sad. Who doesn't know that someone in their family is missing?"

@Thepope14168333 claimed:

"It might be illegal immigrants without relatives in SA."

@MadyiMnisi added:

"If they were documented, their fingerprints would have IDed them."

German tourist goes missing in Cape Town on Valentine’s Day, police find credit card and stolen goods

Briefly News previously reported that the mysterious disappearance of 22-year-old German tourist Nick Frischke in Cape Town has become even stranger.

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Cape Town Police found Frischke's Visa credit card among suspected stolen goods. However, police say it's too early to link the stolen credit card to Frischke's disappearance.

According to TimesLIVE, Frischke went missing after leaving his Airbnb on foot on 14 February. The German tourist was dressed in a beige T-shirt, blue denim jeans and white sneakers and was carrying a backpack at the time of his disappearance.

Source: Briefly News