The Gauteng Forensic Pathology Service has managed to identify additional people from the 62 which had been unidentifiable from the Johannesburg inner-city building fire last month.
Salvaged fingerprints of the deceased were processed through the digital fingerprint system to identify 11 more people.
Spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health, Motalatale Modiba said after autopsies were done and the deceased cleaned, further body examinations were done where another seven bodies were identified by families through various features such as tattoos and other body marks.
“This means 18 more bodies were identified, bringing the number of identifiable bodies to 30 when combined with the 12 that were originally identifiable. The number of unidentifiable bodies is now 44,” said Modiba.
As of Sunday, Modiba said 76 families have presented at the Diepkloof Forensic Pathology Service mortuary in Soweto to report their loved ones which has resulted in the development of a list of 74 names of people that possibly perished in the Johannesburg inner-city fire.
“The fire has since claimed 77 people, three of which died in hospital. The South African Police Service’s Victim Identification Centre unit has drawn 38 antemortem swabbing from the families and is currently doing cross referencing of these to the DNA samples from the unidentifiable bodies as part of linking families with their deceased loved ones,” said Modiba.
The number of bodies collected have since increased to 20.
Earlier this month, IOL reported that the downtown Joburg CBD building which was gutted by an inferno, where at least 77 people lost their lives, carries considerable pieces of South African history.
Ironically, thousands of people including undocumented foreign nationals were now living in the hijacked building which in history served as the administrative premises to control movement of black people during apartheid.
The building used to be the Central Pass Office build in 1954 basically to house the Johannesburg Non-European Department Affairs, which was a unit tasked with regulating the control of black people in urban spaces.
On Sunday, the Gauteng Department of Health said “only 27 patients” remain admitted at various hospitals - Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and Tembisa Hospital.
In July, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi together with MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko unveiled the digital fingerprint system to be used to identify deceased bodies at the 11 Forensic Pathology Service mortuaries in the province.
“This digital innovation has helped to improve the quality of fingerprints collected as it uses biometric scanners and third-party access to the databases of Department of Home Affairs, South African Police Service and National Credit Bureau to identify deceased bodies,” said Modiba.
“On Friday, 08 September the Premier (Lesufi) and the MEC (Nkomo-Ralehoko) held a meeting with Southern Africa Development Community countries to look at the urgent need to link the digital fingerprint system with SADC population registers as a lasting solution in addressing the problem of undocumented immigrants at forensic pathology services mortuaries.”
In one of South Africa’s worst disasters, the 77 people died and more than 40 were injured in the fire at the hijacked building belonging to the City of Joburg in Marshalltown.
IOL