Bodies of 90 illegal miners remain unclaimed

Only three of the 93 illegal miners who died at Stilfontein have been claimed by their families so far, North West police say.

The remaining bodies are still kept at state mortuaries as no next of kin have come forward to claim them since police asked relatives to help identify their relatives three weeks ago.

Ten others were identified through police records which showed they had been arrested before, while 80 are still unidentified.

Police spokesperson Brig Sabata Mokgwaabone said DNA samples were obtained from the bodies and fingerprints were taken for comparison as part of their investigations. “This process resulted in the identification of 10 bodies through previous arrests in the country,” he said.

“The 10 were identified through the police database, which showed they were arrested in Jane Furse, Burgersfort, Welkom, Barberton and Kwa-Mhlanga.”

Mokgwaabone confirmed that one is South African, seven are from Mozambique and the others from Lesotho and Zimbabwe. He said he did not have information about their previous charges and confirmed the bodies were still with the state. “We have their particulars, but they are not yet identified by their families,” he said.

Mokgwaabone said the bodies that have been claimed were handed over to their relatives, who are all from Mozambique.

North West department of health spokesperson Lucas Mothibedi said they will keep the bodies and will only bury them as paupers after police have exhausted all the avenues to find their next of kin.

“The law does permit us to keep them for 30 days when there are no issues; i.e. police investigations, outstanding legal documentations, and no court battles/litigations. But in a unique case like this one, we can keep them as long as all avenues have not been fully explored,” he said.

“Without presuming, we will be guided by the police. Once they are satisfied that there’s no hope we will archive the DNA, and then proceed with paupers' funerals. The objective here is to ensure we find families – burying them is the last resort. We have enough space to keep them.” 

Mokgwaabone said members of the public who have missing relatives and know or suspect they worked in and around Khuma/Stilfontein as zama zamas and have not seen or heard from them for some time, were requested to contact the investigation team at Stilfontein police station.

“This led to us obtaining 45 control samples – 18 from Mozambican nationals, six from Lesotho nationals, eight from Zimbabweans, 12 from South Africans and one from a Botswana national.”

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