FOUR victims' body parts who died when a fire broke out at a building in the Joburg CBD have not been identified.
The body parts are among the 74 deceased the Joburg Emergency Services Management discovered in the burnt Usindiso building on Thursday, 31 August.
Out of the 74 dead people, 12 bodies were identified, while 62 remain unidentified.
This was confirmed by the Gauteng health spokesman Motalatale Modiba on Friday morning, 1 September, outside the Diepkloof mortuary in Soweto, where the bereaved families had gathered to identify their loved ones' remains.
On Thursday, 31 August, a fire gutted the five-storey Usindiso building at the corner of Albert and Delvers streets in the early hours of the morning.
More than 61 people were treated at various medical facilities in and around Joburg, including Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, South Rand Hospital, as well as Tembisa Hospital.
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Modiba said while the process of identification is still underway, for them not to issue the wrong body to the families, they need to allow the current method of DNA to unfold, which is also being handled by the police.
"We are hoping that the process will go smoothly. We do understand the anxiety faced by families as they want to know if their loved ones are here. But there will be teams present to assist throughout the weekend for the process of identification," he said.
Detailing the identification process, Modiba said samples from families will be taken and matched with the DNA of the deceased currently at the forensic pathology services.
"This is a process that must be handled with care as we are dealing with grieving families with different religions, which can be demanding as you would know that the Muslim religion has a specific time frame as to when a deceased person has to be buried," he said.
Modiba has urged families to bring their original identity document (ID) and ID of the deceased or birth certificate if the deceased was a child. Without this, the process becomes challenging.
