Johannesburg - A R50 000 donation would be paid towards funeral expenses of each family of the victims of the church building collapse in Nigeria, the Synagogue Church of All Nations said on Friday.
“We have done a full audit of each family's financial needs and assisted with various household expenses as many of the deceased were breadwinners,” spokesman Kirsten Nematandani said in a statement.
Household expenses varied from rent money to school fees and groceries, he said.
It is believed 85 people from South Africa were among those killed when a multi-storey guesthouse attached to the church, run by Nigerian preacher TB Joshua, collapsed in Lagos on September 12.
On Thursday, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe announced that DNA samples of the 116 victims had arrived at a laboratory in South Africa for analysis.
The DNA process was in the hands of the Nigerian authorities, who had appointed a laboratory in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, to do the analysis.
Nematandani said the church had travelled to all provinces in the past few weeks to visit, counsel and assess families' financial needs and assist where possible.
“The church has pleaded with the Nigerian government to expedite the repatriation process in order for families to bury the deceased with dignity and receive closure,” Nematandani said.
The process of repatriating the victims' remains to South Africa could start as soon as the Nigerian authorities released the bodies, Radebe said then.
A total of 85 bodies will be flown back from Lagos - 81 South Africans, as well as the bodies of three Zimbabweans and a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who were all South African passport-holders.
Sapa