Saturday marked a year since the tragic Usindiso building fire, which claimed the lives of 77 people. A year on, a father of a one-year-old girl who died in the fire is still waiting for her remains to bury her.

NEED ANSWERS

Mike Ngulube, his wife and daughter were tenants at the hijacked building when the incident happened in Marshalltown in the Johannesburg CBD on August 31st last year. He now wants answers from the Gauteng SAPS on what happened to the body of his daughter, Memory Banda. Memory passed away in a fire while she was with her mother Joyce, who was buried on September 5, 2023, in Malawi, where the couple is originally from. According to Ngulube, when he came back from burying his wife Joyce, he was informed that he had to wait for the DNA results in order for the Diepkloof Mortuary to release the body. "When the incident happened, I was informed that the bodies of my wife and child were moved to Diepkloof Mortuary, where, as a family, we did the DNA tests and they came back positive. When I wanted to take the bodies to Malawi for burial, I was shocked when we were told that they can only give us the body of my wife and not my daughter," he said.

NOBODY TO BURY

Ngulube said that the SAPS forensics told him they would inform him when he could come take his daughter's body. "It's now been a year since I've been waiting for answers from the SAPS. I've been sent from pillar to post, and my daughter is still not buried. All I want is to bury her next to her mother, but no one has answers for me or the whereabouts of her body," he said, adding that he now suspects his daughter's body might have been given to another family by mistake, and they buried her last year. "This is painful because we followed every procedure in order for our families to bury them back home in Malawi with other family members. I will not rest until SAPS does the right and gives my daughter's remains and she is buried next to her mother," he said. Gauteng SAPS Spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said there are ongoing talks with unhappy families that lost their loved ones in the fire. "There was a meeting on Friday with the investigating team, Department of Health forensic services pathology, and the family. I am therefore no longer at liberty to comment on this for now," she said.