IN-DEPTH REPORT
Forensic anthropologists track down remains of struggle heroes
Bodies of eight men who were hanged in late 1980s and given pauper’s burials in Mamelodi cemetery were recently exhumed and returned to families, writes Shaun Smillie
The Mamelodi cemetery is giving up its dead. They come out of unmarked graves where skeletons are found six feet (about 1.8m) down, lying on beds of plastic sheeting — the usual clue pointing to a decades-old pauper’s burial. Recently, the bodies of eight men were exhumed: Michael Lucas, Benjamin Gxothiwe, Tsepo Letsoara, Sipho Mahala, Siphiwe Lande, Ndumiso Siphenuka, Makhezweni Menze and Welile Gwebushe. They were buried in the cemetery after being hanged in the late 1980s. As with most exhumations performed by the National Prosecuting Authority’s missing-persons task team, relatives of the eight watched on May 31 as forensic anthropologists carefully unearthed the bones. Standing at the lip of his open grave, Menze’s relatives burnt impepho in a wooden bowl. The herb is traditionally used to fetch the spirits. "We want to welcome him home, to Addo, where he will be buried," his brother Msokoli Menze said. Most of the other relatives sobbed while they watched the bones being uncov...
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