/ 21 August 2001

UNCLAIMED BODIES BEGIN TO SMELL

UNIDENTIFIED corpses that have lying in Nelspruit’s Avbob mortuary for as long as two years will be given a mass pauper’s burial on Tuesday. Avbob official Lucas Mazia said the undertaker as well as police had tried to trace the families of the dead, but many had died without any form of identification. He said some corpses had been in the morgue since 1999 after dying in road accidents or being killed while committing crimes. Others were found dead in the veld. All died in the Nelspruit, KaBokweni, White River and Ngodwana areas. Until last week, there were 30 unidentified bodies, 15 of which were buried last week at state expense. The remaining 15 will be buried at the Nelspruit cemetery on Tuesday. Masia said many of the bodies had begun to decay and smell bad becasue bacteria is growing on the corpses. African Eye News Service