This morning, the Acting Minister of Police briefed South Africans after the recent MINMEC meeting. There was plenty of talk about reform, implementation, and restoring public confidence. All issues the SAPS is desperately in need of.
But on the single greatest crisis facing our criminal justice system, the Acting Minister was almost completely silent. I am talking about the forensic DNA backlog.
Right now, South Africa has hundreds of thousands of outstanding forensic exhibits sitting in our labs. Tens of thousands relate to rape, murder, and child sexual offences. While that evidence gathers dust, victims wait years for justice. Offenders walk free. And more victims are created. All this despite the Acting Minister repeating the President’s call that GBV be treated as a National Priority.
Without DNA, investigations stall. Prosecutors cannot build cases. Trials are delayed, and convictions become harder to secure. Every day this backlog continues is another day justice is denied.
The Acting Minister claimed to be armed with a comprehensive action plan to tackle GBV, yet made no mention of measurable targets to eliminate the backlog. No timelines. No emergency intervention. No strategy to partner with accredited universities or private laboratories. Instead, we got broad references to technology and engagements with the National Treasury around initiating lab contracts to KZN and Mpumalanga.
The troubling reality is that forensic scientists have told us that the system is so overwhelmed that some cases are effectively being rationed. This is not a forensic system but crisis management, and it risks losing evidence that could put dangerous criminals behind bars.
The Acting Minister must acknowledge he can no longer pretend that the SAPS can solve this alone. Even if every state lab was fully staffed overnight, the backlog would take years to clear. We need to bring in accredited universities and private labs to help, while maintaining quality and integrity. The only avenue to addressing the crisis is by bringing in and collaborating with competent partners and forming actual partnerships in policing.
Victims do not measure success by speeches. They measure it by whether DNA evidence reaches court before memories fade and cases collapse. Communities regain confidence when rapists and murderers are identified quickly and prosecuted successfully.
South Africa does not need another reset agenda that ignores the elephant in the room. We need an emergency forensic recovery plan with clear deadlines, measurable targets, and transparent reporting. Until then, claims that policing reform has entered its implementation phase will ring hollow. You cannot rebuild a justice system while one of its most critical pillars remains in crisis.