THE backlog in DNA tests involving gender-based cases has grown from 77 000 to over 80 000 at the SAPS forensic science laboratories.
This was revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele when he was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Nazley Khan Sharif.
Cele said there were 81 596 backlogs related to forensic cases of gender-based violence cases as at May 10.
In his written response, Cele said the backlogs involved 79 369 biology cases, 1806 ballistic cases, 409 chemistry cases, 10 scientific analysis cases and one each of victim identification and questioned documents.
He said there were 1683 cases that had been registered, 616 cases were finalised and 17 562 others were being processed.
Last month, Cele made a public apology during a debate on the DNA crisis in the SAPS national forensic science laboratories in the National Assembly.
He revealed at the time that the national backlogs at the forensic science laboratories stood at 208 291 cases.
However, the minister told the National Assembly that 77485 of crimes committed against women and children that have outstanding results from forensic laboratories were being processed.
He blamed poor contract management, corruption and lack of leadership in the forensic laboratories for the backlogs, and undertook to bring normality back to operations SAPS laboratories within 18 months.
Responding to questions on the training of police officers, Cele said the SAPS did not have dedicated learning programmes that dealt with the guidelines of management of survivors of sexual violence.
However, he said the training incorporated the guidelines of the management of survivors of violence.
The training included national victim empowerment, first responder to sexual offences, sexual offences course for investigating officers, vulnerable children, domestic violence, children and youth at risk, among others.
Cele also said 10282 police officers from 1029 police stations across the country and their head office had been trained.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal had the most officers who underwent the training with 3746 and 2342 respectively.
“From 1 April 2019 to 5 May 2021, a total of 9985 SAPS members were trained,” he said.
The minister said the SAPS had training interventions that would target 6028 officers in the 2021-22 financial year.