Over 2,000 unclaimed bodies in government mortuaries, health minister Joe Phaahla reveals

Over 2,000 unclaimed bodies in government mortuaries, health minister Joe Phaahla reveals

By Simon Majadibodu

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has revealed that there are more than 2,000 unclaimed bodies in government mortuaries in the country, with over 1,300 bodies in KwaZulu-Natal mortuaries alone.

Phaahla disclosed this while answering a parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance’s Member of Parliament, Madeleine Hicklin.

KZN had 1, 336 unclaimed bodies, followed by Limpopo with 283, and North West with 266. Mpumalanga had a total of 82 unclaimed bodies, while Free State is sitting 82 and 51in the Northern Cape.

There were no figures for the Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

Phaahla said the policy of unclaimed bodies was that they had to be moved to a freezer within seven days of admission “and if such body remains unidentified for 30 days, the municipal council under whose jurisdiction the designated facility is, must ensure that a pauper burial for such body is undertaken”.

He said a picture, fingerprints and blood tissue samples of the body had to be taken and archived.

Meanwhile, speaking on SAFM’s podcast show called First Take SA, the Chief director for hospital services, at the Department of Health, Dr. Relebohile Ncha, explained that the main reason for the piling up of unclaimed bodies in mortuaries, was caused by the families who are not coming to claim the bodies of their loved ones.

“And, we can take it back that perhaps some of them don’t know that their loved ones have died or passed away. Therefore, they don’t have an idea to come and check for them,” Ncha said.

Ncha explained that the department is experiencing a major problem with identifying the bodies that do not have any form of identification.

However, she mentioned that the duration in which unclaimed bodies in government mortuaries are stored varies from seven days to a year, citing that identification takes longer due to the absence of any form of identification.

“We have to involve the SAPS in it, where they try to assist with fingerprints so that the process of trying of trying to identify them before we can take them as pauper burial, just becomes a bit of a long period of the indentation that takes place,” she added.

She further explained that while the process breaches the government policies of not keeping bodies for more than 30 days, they make every effort with the assistance of other avenues, to help them in the identification process.

“Ideally, we don’t want to bury anybody as a pauper, so we try by all means to check all the other avenues that are available to us, to try and identify the bodies. Hence, the period of social bury.”

She added that the majority of unidentified bodies will ultimately be buried in paupers’ graves.

IOL