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.
The DA first started raising the alarm on this issue in 2019 when the case exhibits backlog was less than 100,000. In November last year the figure reached over 117,000 and SAPS presented an unrealistic turnaround plan which has failed to deliver any tangible outcomes in its first four months.
We believe that this gross failure to keep the NFSL operating smoothly is a human rights violation on the part of the SAPS as victims suffer the indignity of waiting for justice while living in perpetual fear. We believe that it is therefore critical for the SAHRC to investigate this matter with urgency.
It is the DA’s view that, in light of the above, the following fundamental rights of victims of crimes are being violated:
– The right to human dignity;
– The right to just administrative action; and
– The right to access to courts.
We reiterate our call to the National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, and the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, to engage with private laboratories to address the backlog. The continued increase in unprocessed DNA case exhibits is holding up the wheels of justice and this situation must not be allowed to continue.
We now turn to the Human Rights Commission hoping that they will act swiftly and investigate this matter so that consequences may be brought to bear on those responsible. This, we believe, will go some way in restoring the dignity of victims of crime which has been trampled on by the SAPS’ continued failures.