Hearts, Lungs Of Dead Ex-Miners Can't Be Identified

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU

THE hearts and lungs of dead ex-mineworkers that were awaiting clinical pathology tests at Mafeteng government Hospital can no longer be identified after their name tags were lost.

The body parts were to undergo tests to ascertain if the former mine workers succumbed to TB or silicosis.

The results were needed to facilitate payment to victims from the Tshiamiso Trust that compensates former mine workers who died of TB or silicosis

But in a shocking twist to the matter, the Mafeteng Hospital occupational health specialist, Hatane Hatane, told the parliamentary social cluster last week that it is no longer possible to identify some of the body parts due to the misplacement of nametags.

The Tshiamiso Trust manages thousands of claims of mine workers eligible for compensation after they contracted TB or silicosis from working in certain gold mines during specific periods between March 12, 1965 and December 10, 2019.

The Trust has so far only paid 7 918 out of the 52 000 Basotho who claimed compensation since 2019.

Hatane disclosed to the committee last week that Mafeteng Hospital“is facing a crisis of lungs and hearts that do not have label names”.

The problem, Hatane told parliament, is that“the families will not be able to get any compensation if the problem is not solved”.Advertisement

This comes barely three months after the national director of health services, Dr Llang Maama, told parliament that the lungs and hearts of several dead ex-mineworkers taken out for clinical pathology tests were scattered in various mortuaries in Lesotho without any progress.

The missing name tags scandal has prompted the parliament Social Cluster to set up a commission to investigate the matter, according to the Lesotho Ex-miners Association executive director, Rantšo Mantsi.

Mantsi told thepost that the commission will comprise of ex-miners representatives, Ministry of Health officials and the parliament committee representatives.

“We are worried and unhappy as ex-miners because of the problem of negligence on the dead ex-miners' parts,” Mantsi said.

“This is one of the reasons we are failing to get compensations,” he said

In November 2024 the Ex-miners Association told the committee that the lungs and hearts had been lying in Lesotho's mortuaries for the past three years with no prospect that they would be taken for tests in South Africa any time soon.

Mantsi said they had since found out that the problem of missing names on the body parts is not limited to Mafeteng only, it is also prevailing in Leribe and Maseru.

“We found out that some of the parts have been kept for more than 15 years. It does not make sense,” he said.

He said they know that meat gets rotten even when stored in the refrigerator.

“What more with those lungs and hearts that have been there for so many years?”Advertisement

Mantsi said the problem of hearts and lungs being kept in mortuaries for years is bigger than what meets the eye.

“We reported the issue of hearts and lungs since November. It has not been solved up to now,” he said.

The cluster heard that Lesotho's only pathologist, Dr Tlhabi Moorosi, is the only one who can send the body parts to the South African National Occupation Institute for further analysis.

The committee is yet to summon Dr Moorosi for questioning.

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