Family find son buried without their knowledge after seven years

A grieving family has found closure after the body of their 32-year-old son, mistakenly buried as a pauper after a 2018 car crash, was exhumed from a mass grave in the Mookgophong cemetery.

The exhumation comes after an investigation by police and provincial authorities into the controversial burial of more than 40 unidentified bodies, many of which were interred without coffins, in clustered unmarked graves.

According to SAPS spokesperson Col Malesela Ledwaba, the remains of the man were identified through a “meticulous police investigation of fingerprints and DNA analysis”.

This led to a formal request by his family to exhume the body and bury him with dignity.

“The corpse of a 32-year-old African male person who died in a vehicle accident in 2018 and buried by government as a pauper has been reconnected with his next of kin,” said Ledwaba.

“The police in Mahwelereng were recently approached by the family who had been looking for their son, not knowing that he died on the N1 near Mookgophong.”

After the crash the man was classified as an unidentified victim and a culpable homicide case was opened at Mokopane SAPS.

With no identification and no-one coming forward, his body was buried according to state procedures for unclaimed corpses.

“Though it was a difficult and demanding task, the corpse was found among the other unknown corpses which were also buried as paupers after a depressing exhumation process,” said Ledwaba.

This case has added new urgency to an investigation launched earlier this month by the Limpopo health department.

It was triggered by reports that more than 40 unclaimed bodies had been buried in mass graves at Mookgophong without coffins or adherence to proper burial protocols.

“The exhumation process which started on May 5 unearthed a puzzling and unintended discovery when it came to light that more than 40 corpses were not buried in terms of the set standards and protocols, after they were buried in a clustered fashion,” said Ledwaba.

Police forensics teams, with local investigators, were part of the court-approved exhumation process. The findings prompted Limpopo police commissioner Lt-Gen Thembi Hadebe to order a further probe.

“The matter is in the hands of the department of health and the local municipality who are working with the police,” said Ledwaba.

This disturbing revelation came amid a growing crisis concerning the management of unclaimed bodies in state mortuaries.

Regulations stipulate that if a body remains unclaimed after 30 days it may be buried by the state. However, the backlog has reached alarming levels.

In August 2024 parliament's portfolio committee on health reported that more than 3,000 unclaimed bodies were accumulating in forensic pathology mortuaries nationwide, some having been stored for up to three years.

Limpopo had 315 unclaimed bodies at the time, a notable increase from earlier in the year.

In Cape Town, the Western Cape health department and Wellness Forensic Pathology said 279 pauper burials had been conducted last year.

The total number of unclaimed bodies, nationally, by August 2024, was 3,186.

So far no arrests have been made regarding the Mookgophong burials, but investigations are ongoing.

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