Joburg fire: Traumatised families wait to identify loved ones

As more bodies were moved to the Forensic Pathology Service Diepkloof (FPS) mortuary, distant cries could be heard coming from outside, as families waited to identify their loved ones, some still praying to find them still alive.

A distraught mother, Lisa Mathebula, who still has not located her 28-year-old daughter and four-year-old grandson, said: “At this point, prayer is the only thing that has kept me going. And I’m just praying they come back to me”.

Mathebula said on Thursday morning while they were preparing for work, her husband Phillip saw the news and immediately called his brothers to help him with the search since her daughter was not answering the phone.

“He searched and searched, and even went to both mortuaries (and) he was told he could not identify them at Hillbrow yet. He immediately thought they were probably burnt beyond recognition already,” said the sobbing mother.

“This is already traumatic. Imagine having to now wait for the identification process or even the biometric and DNA process. We will never find rest until we can lay them to rest.”

“But before any of that, we are still praying they are still alive somewhere, that maybe we missed them through the whole process, and they were probably just injured and in hospital.”

Mathebula said the family had been parked a few metres away from the mortuary since early yesterday morning.

“We can’t sit in the house, we can’t just sit and cry the whole day. It only makes sense that we do something, or am I wrong?” she asked as she continued to wipe the tears off her face.

Phillip echoed his wife’s words and said despite the little hope they were holding onto, “we cannot help but think of the worst”, even though it is unimaginable.

“We are honestly not trying to be rude when we say we cannot speak to the media in this moment. Because we cannot have outside voices telling us the worst-case scenarios. We just want to keep the hope,” he added, before looking away.

More than 70 people were burnt beyond recognition in the blaze which gutted the illegally occupied Usindiso building in the central business district.

The Gauteng provincial health department yesterday urged families who had lost loved ones in the fire to go and identify them at the Diepkloof mortuary after they were transferred from Hillbrow.

Speaking to the media outside the mortuary yesterday, Gauteng acting chief executive of pathology Thembalethu Mpahlaza said the unidentified bodies could only be traced through DNA from family members.

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“We can confirm we managed to admit 74 bodies and they will be subjected to the Lodox system, which is an X-ray imaging device,” he said.

The DNA process had been started on Thursday but was delayed due to load shedding. Once the process had started, the forensic team had realised “only 12 bodies can be viewed”.

“The remaining 62 bodies have been burnt beyond recognition, hence it will take a while to finalise the process of harvesting DNA samples,” he said.

“We have to subject those bodies to ascertain, maybe, that none of them had gunshot wounds or bullets before they got burnt; that process is ongoing. We’re affected by the issue of load shedding, which has caused delays in terms of finalising that process.”

Health department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the facility would also open today and tomorrow from 9am until 3pm and that counselling services would be offered to bereaved families.

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“A family member or relative who wishes to identify their loved one should have their original identity document, ID of the deceased or a birth certificate if the deceased is a child,” he added.

“If the deceased is a foreign national, a passport, asylum seeker certificate or a letter from (the) country of origin confirming who the deceased is and to whom the remains should be handed over to is needed.”