This includes the remains used as a decoy for Facebook rapist and murderer Thabo Bester's escape from the Mangaung maximum prison last year.

This was confirmed by the MEC for Health, Mathabo Leeto, during a visit to the family home of 32-year-old Katlego Junior Bereng Mpholo in Ipopeng, Bloemfontein on Friday (28/4).

Leeto said the fact that Bereng's body was claimed by someone other than a relative is a serious concern. It caused the department to investigate its policies and regulations as to how bodies are claimed.

Three bodies were allegedly claimed from their facilities by Bester’s girlfriend, Dr Nandipha Magudumana. Leeto said the investigation will also investigate whether the procedures for providing documentation were followed.

She said there would be consequences for those implicated pending the investigation.

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"Heads are going to roll if the investigation finds that procedures were not followed and the body was released (unlawfully). There should be consequences for that. But we must also look at the regulations in place so we don't get the same incident as a result of our own procedure in the department," she said.

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Leeto said there are a lot of unidentified bodies at the government mortuary in Bloemfontein.

If a body is not claimed within seven days, the department sends fingerprints to the criminal record centre of the police as well as Home Affairs in the hope of identifying the bodies. Unidentified bodies at the mortuary have to be kept for 30 days, and if not claimed, the department has to dispose of them by burying them as a government.

By law, failure to identify and collect bodies within 30 days following public calls means the facilities where they are kept are allowed to give them a pauper’s burial.

According to the Pauper Burial Policy in South Africa, a body is buried at the cost of the municipality at a cemetery determined by the authority.

A pauper’s funeral, now known as a "public health funeral," is a very basic funeral that’s arranged and paid for by the local municipality.

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"Today we visited the family to pay homage to them and say we are sorry for what has happened. It is painful to them; it is also painful to us because no one deserves to die the way Katlego has died.

"While the police are doing their own investigation which will reveal who was involved, we have a responsibility as a department to do our own investigation," Leeto said.

OFM News