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Last year, the Gauteng health department recorded 1 173 unidentified bodies in the province’s 11 forensic pathology service mortuaries. The mortuary in Germiston on the East Rand recorded the most unidentified bodies with 400, followed by Johannesburg with 169, while Pretoria had 117 and Diepkloof in Soweto had 103.
DA member of the provincial legislature Jack Bloom said these were all deaths thought to be due to unnatural causes, which was why they ended up in government mortuaries.
“If they don’t have any form of identification on them, it is difficult to contact their families. Many of these deceased are probably foreigners with no local families. Tragically, in some cases the body is identified but is unclaimed because the family cannot afford to bury them,” said Bloom. He added that government tried not to keep bodies for more than 30 days as they may run out of capacity and space.
In 2020, the Gauteng Health Department recorded 1,173 unidentified bodies in the province’s 11 forensic pathology service mortuaries. The mortuary in Germiston recorded the most unidentified bodies, with 400, followed by Johannesburg with 169, Pretoria with 117 and Diepkloof with 103.
Democratic Alliance MPL Jack Bloom tells
Spotlight these are all deaths that are thought to be due to unnatural causes, which is why they end up in a state mortuary.
“If they don’t have any form of identification on them, it is difficult to contact the family. Many of these bodies are probably foreigners with no local family. Tragically, in some cases the body is identified but is unclaimed because the family cannot afford to bury them,” says Bloom, adding that the government tries not to keep bodies for more than 30 days as they may run out of capacity and space.
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The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has sent investigators to Braamfontein, where a man was allegedly shot by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on Wednesday morning.
The man (believed to be in his thirties) apparently got caught up in the protest by University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) students and was shot as he came out of the Myclinic Jorissen Medical Centre in Braamfontein.
Dr Tebogo Sedibe, the doctor who treated the man at the clinic shortly before the fatal shooting, said the wounds were deep.
“I was treating another patient in my room when I heard the gunshots. My assistant came to ask me to come and help outside because one of our patients got shot. I went out to see and performed CPR, compression-only,” Sesibe told