Nearly 700 people were at the Gauteng memorial service for the victims of the Nigeria church collapse, held at Johannesburg City Hall. Source: Roxanne Joseph
JOHANNESBURG- Hundreds of mourners attended the Gauteng memorial for the victims of the Nigeria church collapse on Thursday at the Johannesburg City Hall.
Nearly 700 family members, friends and community members packed into City Hall to pay their tributes to the victims, along with government leaders and representatives from different religious groups around the country.
Addressed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura, the families clung to one another throughout the two-hour prayer service.
"National collective grief has been shown," Makhura said.
Family members of the victims whose remains have not yet been returned to South Africa were also at the service and received extended condolences from Makhura.
"Our prayers are more with those 11 whose remains are not in the country," he told media. "I am very confident the president and his chosen team of ministers are working to do everything in their power to bring the remains of those still in Nigeria home."
He referred to the death of 85 South Africans when a residence of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Nigeria on September 12 this year as a "tragedy that has struck the entire nation".
The City of Johannesburg's mayor, Parks Tau, said that families of the victims should be comforted by the memory of their loved ones and assured them that the City would continue to support them.
Memorial services are being held throughout the country, with one in KwaZulu-Natalthis past Monday and another last Sunday at the Waterkloof Air Force Base.
Eighty-one South Africans were killed in the Nigerian building collapse, which claimed a total of 116 lives. The bodies of 74 victims arrived back in South Africa on Sunday.
The remaining bodies are apparently still needed for DNA sampling by Nigerian authorities.
There were also three people from Zimbabwe and one from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who were travelling on South African documents when they were killed in the collapse.
-Roxanne Joseph
Source: ENCA.COM
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