2 days ago
Mass burial of unclaimed bodies of Stilfontein illegal miners begins
However, as of Tuesday, 30 bodies that have not been claimed would be buried, said Lekgethwane. 'There are 53 bodies at [a] Klerksdorp mortuary [who are] unclaimed. We bury them as unclaimed people,' he said.
Lekgethwane said the remaining 23 will be buried by the end of June or the beginning of July. It is expected that all the bodies would be buried by the end of July.
Mothibedi said they were working with local municipalities and that the bodies would either be buried in Rustenburg or Madibeng.
North West police spokesperson Brig Sabata Mokgwabone said families were still allowed to come forward for DNA samples but not for identification of the bodies. 'We will do a comparison of the DNA samples but because of the decomposition of the bodies, it is going to be difficult to allow anyone to identify them,' he said.
'Their graves will be marked so that if anyone comes forward and they are positively linked, then we know where to find their bodies. The process will not stop.'
Since the police's Operation Vala Umgodi, 1,826 illegal miners have been arrested at the old Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein. Of these, 1,128 are from Mozambique, 473 from Zimbabwe, 197 from Lesotho, 26 from South Africa, and one each from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi.
