Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that the country’s DNA backlog stands at more than 37 000 for sexual offences at SAPS forensic science laboratories.
DA MP Andrew Whitfield wrote to Cele asking about the number of backlog cases that were sexual offences-related after he said the DNA backlog at SAPS laboratories was reduced from 241 000 to 71 000 in October.
Whitfield also asked about the average number of DNA samples that were submitted for DNA isolation step in each case and the number of isolation workstations that were currently with laboratories in Pretoria, Cape Town, Gqeberha and Amanzimtoti.
In his written response, Cele said the total backlog for sexual offence cases was 37 715.
“The expected submission for Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) isolation is informed by the preliminary outcome and the evidential value, case category which differs from case to case,” he said.
Cele also said in the Pretoria forensic laboratory there were 20 000 samples.
This included KwaZulu-Natal samples.
The Plattekloof forensic laboratory in Cape Town was saddled with 12 000 samples that were inclusive of the Eastern Cape samples.
The minister said it took between 70 and 80 days to finalise the DNA samples on the forensic science laboratory administration system.
Cele added that 732 and 551 rape samples could be isolated each day at the DNA isolation workstations in the Pretoria and Cape Town forensic laboratories respectively.
Cele’s response comes hot on the heels of a response by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola who recently said lower courts registered a pending case-load of 16 781 sexual offences cases, of which 6 026 were backlog cases, since January.
Lamola said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had reported that during the period between January and 31 July, a total of 1 994 convictions were obtained from 2 673 cases of sexual offences finalised with a verdict.
“Many of the pending cases of sexual offences are due to the delayed submission of DNA reports by SAPS to the NPA,” he said.
The Ministries of Justice and Constitutional Development and Police have since set up a task team to address challenges relating to the DNA backlog reports.
“I have been informed that this collaboration continues to yield the expected outputs.
“As at March 31 2022, SAPS finalised 7 618 DNA reports which increased the number of trial-ready cases of sexual offences managed by NPA,” Lamola said.
Cele recently said 15 824 case docket investigations were concluded by the SAPS in the 2021-22 financial year.
When asked about average period of time the SAPS concluded rape investigation and causes of delays, Cele said the finalisation of a case depended on the merits and complexity of each case and the average period had not been determined.
“A request to the SAPS research component will be submitted to conduct research with respect to the average time it takes to conclude rape investigation,” he said.
Cele said delays in the finalisation of a case could be attributed to the complexity of the investigation, taking into account support to the investigation such as assessment reports by social workers and forensic leads.
“There is an ongoing process to resolve the provisioning of DNA reports, which is being addressed by the SAPS forensic science laboratory.”
He also said the shortage of forensic social workers was also impacting the finalisation of cases.
“A total number of 40 posts for forensic social workers were, however, advertised in September 2022 and the interview processes are currently underway to resolve this internal dependency.”
Cape Times