DA to lodge human rights complaint against SAPS and NFSL over DNA backlog
7 March 2021
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be lodging a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Forensic Science Laboratory (NFSL) over the increasing backlogs in DNA testing at the NFSL.
The failure of the SAPS Forensic Division to process DNA samples within a reasonable period of time is denying access to justice to thousands of South Africans and allowing violent rapists and murderers to be released back onto our streets to rape and murder with impunity.
A central cause of this chronic dysfunction is a collapse of the contract management process within the Forensic Division whereby contracts are lapsing and taking months to be renewed or awarded. SAPS Forensic Division is clearly still haunted by the corruption scandals stretching back years to when Khomotso Phahlane was still head of the division. It has now become clear that Minister Bheki Cele and National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, have together failed to restore the integrity of the Forensic Division and purge it of the ghost of Phahlane. They must therefore be held accountable for their role in this crisis.
It was revealed in the Portfolio Committee on Police this week that the dysfunctional contract management led to no case exhibits being processed in January and February and that the information system used by the NFSL is offline. It was also revealed that the consequence of these failures is that the DNA case exhibit backlog has exploded to more than 172 000 samples - at the current trajectory the DA believes it could hit the 200 000 mark within the next five weeks. The continued backlog in testing these DNA samples is a blatant failure to ensure access to justice for the thousands of victims of crime in South Africa.