Cape Town - Local and international experts in forensics and related fields gathered for the third Forensic DNA Symposium in Cape Town.
The two-day symposium by lobbyist DNAforAfrica and event partners the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Committee of the Red Cross commenced at the President Hotel in Sea Point.
The symposium saw representatives from more than 46 countries with 400 registrants online and 130 people attending in person.
“DNAforAfrica is really a brand, it’s a platform that I’ve created to really gather like-minded forensic experts within Africa to showcase their incredible expertise, to show that we need to work together with collaborative partnerships in order to advance the shape and the future of forensics of Africa,” DNAforAfrica regional director Dr Vanessa Lynch said.
“So it’s a holistic approach to understanding that forensic DNA can be used to advance justice, to assist with human rights efforts and human identification in so many different fields. And also encouraging people to step in and show up in terms of their own expertise.
“Globally, Africa is not seen as the centre of expertise in forensics but actually our limited resources, the case work that we deal with, really puts us in the centre of forensics in the world.”
Symposiums, mini symposiums, and workshops were previously held in Nairobi (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Accra (Ghana).
This year’s symposium covers several thematic areas. The first day of the conference focused on advances in DNA, gender-based violence initiatives and DNA policy. Day two will unpack DNA databases, disaster victim identification and quality assurance.
Speaker and Special Director of the Public Prosecutions, Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit within the National Prosecuting Authority, advocate Bonnie Currie-Gamwo, said DNA was often what stood between a conviction and an acquittal in a gender-based violence matter.
“In South Africa, we’ve had a backlog in DNA cases. In South Africa, it's only the police who have the mandate to do forensic analysis for criminal purposes and so they experienced the shortage of chemicals and a backlog developed. This obviously would have had a negative impact on courts and the cases before it and many of these cases were GBV-related.”
Assuming South Africa remains at 70 000 unnatural deaths annually, it would need at least 155 forensic pathologists (450 autopsies a year).
In 2018, senior state pathologist Dr Ryan Blumenthal said there were only about 40 registered forensic pathologists in South Africa, with other reports placing the number at 50 to 60.