Child’s body withheld

UNDUE DELAY: MOM WAITS FOR MONTHS FOR POST-MORTEM RESULT

The forensic laboratory blames the police station and vice versa.

Agrieving mother has been told she has to wait for three months for the post-mortem result and the remains of her child who died in a fire, as the Pretoria Forensic Pathology Laboratory and the Laudium police station have not processed the autopsy.

The DNA results have been delayed and the mother is demanding an explanation from the forensics laboratory.

The distraught woman was initially barred from communicating directly with the laboratory, and was only allowed to speak to the investigating officer in the matter.

This made it difficult for her to get information.

It was only when she defied the instruction and went to the laboratory that she finally found out what was happening.

Now the laboratory and the police are blaming each other for the delay.

Ntina Maepa, the mother of six year-old Sharon Dube, said her child died in a fire at their home in Eteleleng informal settlement in Laudium on August 11.

She said the family woke up in a house engulfed in smoke.

“I took my other children out but I could not find her.

“I suffered some injuries as I was looking for her inside the burning house,” she said.

The police collected the charred remains of the child on the same day, but have not released the post-mortem results or the body for burial to date.

Earlier this week, Maepa asked the laboratory what the cause of the delay was and she was told that she would receive the postmortem results and remains of her child in November – three months after the tragic death.

Maepa said: “I cannot get any closure.

“It has been two months and still I have not been able to bury my child and they cannot explain to me what has caused the delay.”

Deputy director of Forensic Pathology Services in Pretoria Jaco Louw said the investigative officer had confirmed that the results might be available soon.

When contacted for comment, the investigative officer declined to comment.

“The DNA samples from the relatives were taken around August 18.

“At the time the relatives were told that it would take about three months to process.

“This means the results would be available close to November

I wish to get some closure

2019,” Louw said.

He stated that it was South African Police Service (Saps) processes that had delayed the identification and release of the deceased to the relatives.

But Gauteng Saps spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini blamed the laboratory for the delay.

He said the remains of the child have not been released yet as they have not received the DNA results from the forensics laboratory.

“The post-mortem results period differs from case to case.

“The detective in-charge has not received the results for this specific case.’’

Maepa is adamant that she won’t rest until her issue is addressed. “I wish to get some closure, but the police’s dragging out of the post-mortem process makes it very hard to realise that.

“My daughter died tragically and yet I still have to endure more pain as the police have been withholding her remains for so long now,’’ she said.