Cape Town - The ongoing saga of what to do with the skeletal remains in the possession of UCT has taken another turn. The university met the Stuurmans of the Eastern Cape, who said the remains should be returned to them.
The Stuurman families agreed to have more engagements among themselves at the meeting with UCT and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Port Elizabeth last week.
The university flew down to the Eastern Cape last week Wednesday to meet with another set of the Stuurman families after they were caught in a row between two groups which claim the Stuurman skeleton was their ancestor.
Two groups claim the skeleton was that of their ancestor.
The skeleton is part of nine sets of remains that UCT wants to return to their descendants in Sutherland because it believes they were “obtained unethically” in the previous century.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said family representatives from the Eastern, Northern and Western Capes would have further engagements among themselves.
Moholola confirmed the university met the family from the Eastern Cape.
“The previous engagement with the Stuurman family representatives from the Northern Cape and Western Cape was in August, but the Eastern Cape family could not make it.”
Moholola said the most recent meeting, facilitated by the department, discussed the planned reburial of the human remains brought to the university from Sutherland in the 1920s.
“One of these individuals has the surname Stuurman. This meeting was held in line with the university’s broader engagements process,” he said.
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