Action Society today strongly condemned the South African Police Service for sugarcoating the extent of DNA backlogs over the past two years. The fact that the backlog is at 140 000 cases again, proves that SAPS has been trying to hide the dire state of laboratories to the public, causing criminals to go free.
The ongoing DNA Backlog crisis has become a human rights violation which undermines South Africans’ constitutionally entrenched rights to equality, fair administrative action, as well as access to courts. Action Society calls on the Auditor General of South Africa to investigate the crisis on an urgent basis and to urge the South African Police Service to heed calls to enter into Public-private partnerships with private forensic laboratories and universities immediately to tackle the crisis head on.
“DNA evidence is by far the most effective crime fighting tool, but despite the president proclaiming war against GBV on many occasions, the government and especially the SAPS are not taking any real action in sorting out the DNA backlog. Thousands of victims of rape and violent crime, as well as families of murder victims, are not getting their day in court,” says Action Society spokesperson, Juanita du Preez.
“It is clear that previous claims, that the backlogs have been resolved, made by former Police Minister Bheki Cele were blatant lies as backlogs have ballooned up to 140 000 cases again – many samples only being captured to the system after ten years. This has caused countless cases to be withdrawn or closed, letting dangerous perpetrators go free.”
All DNA testing at the Forensic Services Laboratory (FSL) ground to a halt in 2020 because Bheki Cele failed to pay the agreed fees for the PCEM system in June 2020, causing the subsequent shut down of the system. This caused a backlog in forensic testing in over 125 000 cases, of which 92% were sexual assault kits. In November 2020, Cele admitted that the DNA backlog was a whopping 117 738 cases. By December, this figure had grown to 142 504. In March 2021, the FSL head, Major General Edward Ngokha, confirmed that the backlog stood at 172 787 and that nothing had been processed for in January or February. Action Society learned through a PAIA application that the backlog stood at 241 152 in April 2021. By July 2021, a backlog of more than 300 000 cases led to Action Society’s complaint with the Public Protector in October 2021.
It took the Office of the Public Protector (OPP) two years to reply to the complaint that Action Society lodged against the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, President Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African Police Service (SAPS), the State Information Technology Agency SOC Ltd (SITA) and the SAPS’ Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) regarding the DNA backlog-crisis.
The 2023 report found that lack of sufficient budget was a key contributor to the increase in FSL backlogs, and financial mismanagement – including under-budgeting, under-spending and neglecting supplier contracts – was rife. The report further revealed that the centralised procurement of goods and services in the SAPS seems to create inefficiencies in providing services for FSL functions. The investigation also showed that the facilities at the FSLs were largely inadequate to accommodate scientific forensic processes as the design and layout of the laboratories and lack of sufficient or appropriate storage of exhibits hamper the workflow at the FSLs.
“The information revealed to the Police Portfolio Committee yesterday, is nothing new. The problems have been identified two years ago, but no one has been held accountable, and by doing nothing, evidence is literally being shoved into closets never to be seen again, leaving victims in limbo and criminals back on the streets.
