Motjeka Madisha’s grieving family break their silence

The family of Motjeka Madisha has strongly hit out at the SA Police Service (SAPS) and government mortuary over the shambolic handling of the defender’s postmortem and DNA tests.

The 25-year-old former Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana defender from Ga-Madisha village in Zebediela‚ died when the vehicle he was travelling in crashed into a steel pole in wet conditions and burst into flames near Kempton Park on Sunday morning.

Speaking to TimesLIVE on Saturday morning‚ family spokesperson Fani Tsela said the family was disappointed with the manner in which the process of conducting postmortem and DNA tests was handled by the police and pathology services.

“The trauma that the family has gone through was coupled with poor co-operation from the SAPS in Sebenza and government mortuary in Germiston‚” said Tsela.

“We did not receive co-operation from the police and the government mortuary and we don’t know if it’s incompetence‚ negligence or what. When we went to check at the pathology services in Germiston early in the week‚ we found out that they did not do a postmortem and they pointed the finger at the police. The police also pointed the finger at the pathology services.

“A postmortem must be done and after that there must be DNA tests because when we arrived at the mortuary we could not identify his body as a family. We could not identity his body because of the nature of the accident.”

Tsela added that the family cannot go ahead and make funeral arrangements before they have the postmortem and DNA results.

“The only thing that is remaining are postmortem and DNA results because they will help us to find closure as a family. They will also help us to tell the public about funeral arrangements. As things stand, we can’t talk about funeral arrangements without postmortem and DNA results.

“On Friday around midday‚ we received a call from the investigating officer who told us that postmortem and DNA tests were done and we are waiting for those results. This was only on Friday and you must remember that the accident happened on Sunday. This means that for the whole week‚ somebody did not take accountability until yesterday.

“Our fear as the family is that it might happen that it takes a long time without the results because of somebody somewhere not taking responsibility of doing their work. We don’t have an idea as to when the DNA and postmortem results are going to be made available for us as the family. As you can imagine‚ the past days have been extremely difficult for the family.”

It is not clear whether Madisha was driving the car as one person was thrown out while the other‚ who is yet to be identified‚ was trapped inside the burning car.

Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Mathapelo Peters told TimesLIVE on Saturday morning that the police have been in contact with Madisha’s family‚ updating them on the progress of the DNA tests.

“The SAPS is not at liberty to give updates on investigations/cases to third parties‚ including the media‚” she said.

“We can however confirm that the investigating officer assigned to the case is following the due processes and procedures towards finalisation of the DNA examination‚ and that he has been in contact with the family of the deceased updating the family on progress of this case.”