Investigators in South Africa are to begin the process of exhuming bodies from a number of unmarked graves.

They hope to start unravelling the mystery of hundreds of people who disappeared during the apartheid era.

Forensic tests will be carried out on two bodies to establish if they are those of anti-apartheid activists believed to have been murdered in 1988.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission named 477 apartheid victims whose bodies had not been found.

In 2003 President Thabo Mbeki ordered prosecutors to finalise the investigations.

Exhuming two bodies today from unmarked graves in KwaZulu-Natal will be the first step towards bringing closure to these cases.

The two were thought to have been members of the African National Congress military wing killed in 1988 in a shootout with police, according to the National Prosecuting Authority spokesman.

He said forensic tests would be carried out to establish who they were and how they died but emphasised that priority was identifying the bodies of missing persons and not solving crimes.

"I doubt if there will be many prosecutions," said Makhosini Nkosi.

More than 20 bodies were expected to be exhumed in the coming weeks by units set up specifically to investigate the apartheid victims.

Prosecutors hope to solve some 150 cases.

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Johannesburg.