Fifteen unknown people received a dignified burial at the Mbaleni cemetery last Monday morning.

The bodies were those of people who had died in accidents, been killed by snakes or crocodiles or drowned while trying to cross the borders illegally from neighbouring African countries like Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia and also local people who could not be identified.

Relatives were sought and all other means explored before the bodies were declared unknown.

Thulamela’s waste and environment manager, Mr Mbulungeni Madi, said it was the responsibility of the municipality to see to it that all unknown people received dignified funerals. “We are a people-driven municipality and have ubuntu in us. Bodies could not just be thrown away as garbage.” He said they had, over the past months, assisted in burying many bodies which had been declared as unknown. He thanked the Vhembe Funeral Practitioners Association for readily agreeing to partner the municipality in burying people.

Tshilidzini Hospital’s CEO, Mr Magwedzha Mphaphuli, said the hospital’s mortuary is always overflowing with unknown bodies, mostly with people from neighbouring countries. “This puts us under a lot of strain and pressure to give the best service to local people, but as a public institution, we cannot wish for a situation where bodies are just thrown everywhere. We are human beings and we respect all humans, irrespective of where they come from. We have a mandate to serve the community and this is exactly what we are doing,” he said.

Mphaphuli said they would continue to dispense the best service to the community and thanked the municipality and the organized undertakers for what they were doing.

VEFPA chairperson Mr Patrick Mahani said theirs was the duty to give people the service they needed. “We are here to serve the community, irrespective of whether they have money or not. In this trade, one has to have ubuntu because there are many situations where disasters fall over communities that do not have money and we have to intervene,” he said. He said his organization had assisted many needy families in times of need and they would continue working with the municipality.