Crime scenes have a story to tell ‒ but only if there are police officers with the will and skill to listen.
Durban - Dead people and crime scenes do talk ‒ but only if there are police officers with the will and skill to listen.
This week South Africans were treated to another round of how not to solve a crime in the high-profile case of murdered Bafana Bafana star Senzo Meyiwa.
The multitude of journalists, media houses and international streaming platform Netflix got a good dose of drama as the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria was told the police bungled the crime scene.
Independent forensic specialist Dr Steven Naidoo said there weren’t enough skilled forensic specialists in the country and the police were unable to manage because of SA’s high crime rate.
“As a result nothing gets done to any significantly good degree… no case is adequately exhaustively investigated and if they are, they are special ones like the Senzo Meyiwa case,” he said.
Naidoo is world renowned as a forensic pathologist and has been called on to use his expertise in complex cases here and abroad.
He gave his professional view in the inquests for anti-apartheid activists Ahmed Timol and Neil Aggett, testified in the Oscar Pistorius case and participated in the Marikana massacre inquiry.
Although he could only comment on the Meyiwa trial based on what he saw in the media, he said it appeared there had been a failure of the first police officer/s on the scene to secure the crime scene, followed by a “dismal” investigation of a contaminated and altered crime scene.
“I certainly would have thought they would have recognised the high profile nature of this case and mobilised their best investigators to the scene,” said Naidoo.
He said the facts about what happened, who made decisions on the deployments to the scene and what the chain of command was must be further established.
He said the later reconstruction of a crime scene was always possible but it hinged on the quality of the material available.
He was approached about the possibility of looking into the death of South Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chief Albert Luthuli, and said he found the autopsy report in that matter to be reasonable for its time.
Naidoo said despite the advances in scientific and laboratory technology, the principles of crime scene management and investigation had not changed.
“The golden rule, not to interfere or allow intrusion of the scene by any other than professional crime scene investigators, is fundamental to the others.
“Once interfered with, any findings at a scene will lose any validation unless subjected to much further intense scrutiny that is often impossible to accomplish.”
In the Meyiwa case, the court heard that the first forensic police officer on the scene, Sergeant Thabo Mosia, had allowed people to sleep in the house where the shooting occurred, even though he had not completed his work at the crime scene.
When questioned about several alleged oversights at the scene, Mosia told the court he had waited for guidance from Gauteng’s former detective boss, Brigadier Philani Ndlovu, who has since died.
Naidoo said forensic services, specifically in KwaZulu-Natal, left much to be desired.
“The service quality to the public is woefully poor, let alone what I consider to be a professional work standard.”
He said it was important that mentoring took place at the scene of a crime so that any mistakes could be rectified immediately.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the current brain drain of well qualified specialist pathologists to other provinces also had an impact on the quality of investigations.
Lizette Lancaster, manager of the crime hub at the Institute for Security Studies, said often detectives failed to implement the correct procedures at crime scenes or they were not properly trained to deal with these procedures which had implications for the chain of evidence and for what played out in court when exhibits were not tested properly.
“Very often it’s not a question of corruption: it might be a question of capability to deal with complex crime scenes,” said Lancaster.
She said there were major backlogs in forensic matters because of the sheer volumes the police had to deal with.
In addition there was a weakening of specialist capacity because experienced investigators often left the police for the private sector.
The efficacy of the police was also affected by poor appointment and recruitment processes and insufficient training.
Violence monitor and Medical Rights Advocacy Network member Mary de Haas said it was a real blow to court cases when people were murdered and crime scenes not properly secured.
She said corruption in the police also meant that often specimens and exhibits were lost, dockets went missing and evidence was poorly gathered.
“It’s a mixture of incompetence and corruption. Until you clean up the police and forensics nothing will change,” De Haas said.
In spite of several enquiries, the police did not respond.
KZN NPA boss advocate Elaine Zungu said: “Forensic reports are scientific reports based on scientific findings.
“They are objective and independent findings and are vital to the criminal justice system.
“Using forensic evidence is of great assistance in any criminal case.
“Not having this evidence can create problems.
“We have seen this with drug cases as we need the forensic report to indicate that indeed the exhibit recovered is a drug and also to identify the drug; similarly, in sexual offence cases, where the complainant’s DNA reports are of assistance.
“Forensics assist in prosecution (to ensure) the correct person is prosecuted, but it can also absolve an innocent person.
“It also assists with decision making.”
She said if forensic reports were unavailable, cases could not be enrolled, get back-logged if on the court roll, have to be withdrawn and prosecutors had to rely solely on witness evidence without forensics to corroborate it.
The Independent on Saturday