Lentswe, Klerksdorp - The process to identify 93 bodies of suspected illegal miners retrieved from Buffelsfontein Gold Mine’ shaft No 11 is well underway.
The police supplied a breakdown of total bodies retrieved:
* Nine brought to the surface through a pulley system/rope by community volunteers. They said 78 were brought to the surface during the Mine Rescue Operation, five who died while admitted to hospitals (of this number, four resurfaced at Buffelsfontein shaft No 11 and one at Margaret Shaft) and one that was brought to the surface at Margaret shaft.
* In the investigation into the inquest dockets of the nine initial bodies, three were successfully identified and handed to family members; all from Mozambique.
* Brig Sabata Mokgwabone, police spokesperson, said as part of investigations, DNA samples were obtained from 78 bodies retrieved.
* Furthermore, 54 fingerprints were obtained from 78 bodies for comparison. This process resulted in the identification of 10 bodies through previous arrests in the country. The nationalities of the identified are seven from Mozambique, and one each from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and SA.
He added in an effort to get more identifications, members of the public and the community who do not know where their next of kin are and they know or suspect that they were working in and around Khuma / Stilfontein as zama zamas and have not seen or heard from them for some time, were requested to get into contact with the investigation team at Stilfontein Police Station.
This led to obtaining of 45 control samples. The nationalities of the next of kin from whom samples were taken are from Mozambique (18), Lesotho (6), Zimbabwe (8), South Africa (12) and one from Botswana.
He said the working relationship among the abovementioned countries continues in an attempt to identify the bodies.
For enquiries regarding the identification process, Col Francois Jacobs can be contacted on 082 373 8216.
