Gunshot deaths increase dramatically in Cape Town
Cases of gunshot deaths examined at the city’s forensic pathology services have increased by more than 56% compared with last year
Cases of gunshot deaths examined at Cape Town’s forensic pathology services have increased by more than 56% compared with last year. This is according to Marika Champion‚ director of communications for the Western Cape department of health. "During a year-on-year comparison between 2016 and 2017 there is a total overall increase of 56.5% of gunshot fatalities (from 306 to 479 cases during a three-month period)‚" Champion told GroundUp. She said the post-mortem case load for gunshot deaths examined at the Salt River and Tygerberg Forensic Pathology Services had increased by 12% a month on average in the past three months‚ from 140 cases in July to 163 cases in August and 176 cases in September. Champion was commenting on complaints that a backlog of autopsies was delaying Muslim burials. On Friday last week a group of Muslim undertakers‚ family members of deceased and others protested outside the Salt River Forensic Pathology Service against a decision by the Western Cape department ...
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