The Talking Point: Identification of unknown bodies

The Gauteng Department of Health has urged those with missing family members to come forward as more than 900 unidentified bodies lie in the province’s mortuaries. The department’s forensic pathology services (FPS) in Gauteng have 938 unclaimed and unidentified bodies across their 11 mortuaries. We thought to use this opportunity to educate ourselves around these processes and also for those foreign national who pass away in the country as to how their families can claim them.  One of the cases that is dominated the news is how Dr Nadipha allegedly stole three bodies, also how it was assumed that the body that burnt in the prison cell is that of Thabo Bester, the big question is how can something like this happen and what is the role of forensics in all of this?

Guest(Studio): Stephen Fonseca – Manager for the African Centre for Medicolegal Systems at the ICRC in Southern Africa – It’s a network of forensic practitioners across the African continent