KZN health MEC conducts autopsies on bus crash victims

The post-mortems on the victims killed in Sunday's taxi crash in KwaZulu-Natal are being conducted by the MEC for Health‚ Sibongiseni Dhlomo.

This is in a bid to ensure the autopsies are completed in time for the burials‚ scheduled to take place this weekend.

On Sunday morning‚ a minibus taxi that was ferrying church congregants to a tombstone unveiling ceremony crashed in KwaXimba‚ halfway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg‚ claiming the lives of 20 people.

Dhlomo‚ who has a diploma in forensic pathology‚ is currently conducting port-mortems at Pinetown Mortuary.

Dhlomo said he decided to lend a hand in these post-mortems to expedite the process as Pinetown Mortuary already had its own schedule for post-mortems‚ and now were laden with an extra 18 bodies‚ as two of the bodies were at other facilities.

Dhlomo said: “Losing loved ones is a traumatic experience‚ especially when it is under such sudden and tragic circumstances. When you are bereaved‚ the last thing you want is the secondary trauma that may arise from any delays with the funeral arrangements.

I decided to get involved here in order to ensure this part of the tragedy is well-managed and goes off smoothly‚ so that other arms of government can play their part without any hindrances. We anticipate that there should be no further delays because all the bodies have been identified.”