Bodies of 90 illegal Stilfontein 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 at state mortuaries as no next of kin have come forward to claim them since police asked relatives to help identify them three weeks ago.

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

Police spokesperson Brig Sabata Mokgwabone said DNA samples were obtained from the bodies and fingerprints were taken for comparison. “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.”

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

Mokgwabone said the bodies that had 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 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 people with missing relatives who 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.”

SowetanLIVE