Lerato Mbhiza
The Department of Health calls on the families of the 62 unidentifiable bodies to visit the Diepkloof Mortuary in Soweto and said the pathologists have on Sunday completed post-mortems of the bodies.
The department’s spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the police have also drawn DNA samples of the 62 unidentifiable bodies and have taken samples from 13 families who are either siblings or parents of the deceased.
Motalatale said those samples will be matched to the bodies as a way of linking families and helping them identify their loved ones.
For now 10 families have identified their loved ones from the 12 identifiable bodies and seven have already been released to the families, he said.
“Once the families conclude necessary processes and produce required identification documents the mortal remains are released to them for burial,” said Modiba.
Only 31 people are still receiving care in hospital as of Sunday after 88 patients were seen at various health facilities across Gauteng since the horrific inferno tore through the hijacked building on Thursday morning..
Sixty-nine families have presented themselves at the Diepkloof Forensic Pathology Services in the last three days trying to identify their loved ones’ bodies.
And eight victims have been laid to rest in the Olifantsvlei Cemetery in the south of Johannesburg.
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