A South African forensic anthropologist, Dr Kavita Lakha, will lead the scientific examination of the remains of former Robben Island political prisoners Simon Niilenge and Festus Nehale.
The two Namibians died while imprisoned on Robben Island and were buried in Cape Town. Their remains will now be exhumed, examined and prepared for repatriation to Namibia.
On Thursday morning, Dr Lakha received the relatives of the fallen men at the grave, and then the process started with her carefully studying the gravesite before the actual excavation.
Each stage is documented to ensure that the remains are properly recovered and identified.
"And for me, this is a very special moment because it's also historic for Namibia, and I just want to say we do it with a lot of respect and care and lots of dignity. So this is not our first visit to the cemetery. We first do something called a preliminary investigation, and our preliminary investigation involves visiting the graves and confirming if the grave number and the location match where the individual is said to have been buried. So this is our second visit. So our preliminary investigation has been conducted. Now it's been 53 years since the individual has been buried. So it's closed; we first start by marking our graves. So we mark the grave; we know who we're going to be working with. We start opening the grave, and for that we use gravediggers, and they will get us up to the level of the coffin. Once they reach the level of the coffin, forensic specialists get in. So once we get in, we clean the remains, and we do a basic confirmation of identity. It's not an identity, but a biological profile. Is this a male? How old is this individual? And is it consistent with what we're looking for?"
The bones will be assessed to establish biological information and look for evidence that can assist in confirming the identities of the two men. Where necessary, samples may be collected for further scientific analysis, including DNA testing.
Niilenge and Nehale died while serving prison sentences on Robben Island during the apartheid era.