Twenty-three more unidentified bodies, recovered earlier this year from disused gold mines at Stilfontein, will be buried in the coming weeks, the North West Department of Health has confirmed.

On Tuesday (10/6), a mass funeral was held for 30 unidentified individuals at cemeteries in Kanana and Stilfontein within the province’s golden belt. These were among the 78 bodies initially extracted from the abandoned mine shafts late last year and early this year.

The remaining 23 bodies are awaiting death certificates from the Department of Home Affairs, said departmental spokesperson Tshegofatso Mothibedi. Once received, plans for their burial will proceed.

“We expect to receive the necessary documentation in the coming weeks, and mass funerals will be carried out by month end,” said Mothibedi.

Since the recovery operation, authorities have worked to identify the deceased through DNA matching, also asking families to come forward. Twenty-five bodies have been successfully identified and returned to their families.

“Since the start of the verification and identification process, we have successfully identified and handed 25 bodies to their loved ones after they came forward and positively identified their deceased through positive DNA matching,” he said.

The department emphasised its compliance with legal processes regarding unidentified remains.

“As the law prescribed, we have at least 30 and more to conduct the identification process – and beyond that, the law empowers the government to conduct mass funerals.

“We waited for over four months, with calls made for all community members to come forward with information to help us identify some of these bodies. We have extracted DNA from the bodies and archived them, in case someone comes forward at a later stage to make a claim.”

Mothibedi dismissed claims that the department conducted the burials in secrecy.

“Burials of unidentified bodies happen all the time – and are normally carried out without fanfare. As per the norm, there are no invitations to mass funerals.”

A total of 93 bodies were recovered between 3 December and 25 January from the Buffelsfontein mine and Margaret Shaft in Stilfontein, confirmed police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone. The deceased are believed to be illegal miners, many from neighbouring countries.

A total of 38 bodies were identified and handed to families from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique, he said. While 30 bodies were buried as paupers, 25 remain unidentified.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi cg