The remains of 32 unidentified people who were lying at the forensic pathology unit at the Elim Hospital received a proper burial last Wednesday.

The Elim Hospital buried the unidentified people during a pauper’s funeral that was held at the Vleifontein cemetery. According to the spokesperson for the Elim Hospital, Mr Avhatakali Marole, it was a historic moment for the hospital to bury such a large number of people in one day. “The people who were buried came from different parts of the Vhembe Municipal area,” he said.

Marole added that the burial was conducted after they had spent the whole year trying to investigate the cases of the deceased. “Our mortuary is at maximum capacity of carrying about 58 people, so it was becoming a problem to the hospital in terms of the availability of space,” he said.

According to Dr Thandi Mahuluhulu, they have 54 freezers at the hospital and these freezers are also utilized by the forensic pathology section. She added that some of the bodies had already started decomposing when they were recovered. According to Marole, some of the people who were buried were collected along the N1 road, a lot of whom were Zimbabwean citizens.

Cllr Lindiwe Lowane attended the function on behalf of the mayor of the Makhado Munici-pality, Cllr Mavhungu Luruli, and said that there were immigrants all over the world and that it has always been the municipality’s responsibility to treat them with dignity, especially in death.

Among the people who were buried, seven were children and 25 adults. The funeral was conducted by Thabelo Funerals which also donated some of the coffins free of charge.