A staggering 36 647 sexual offence cases are outstanding in the Western Cape, as a result of the DNA backlog.
The DA’s Reagen Allen and Gillion Bosman, at a digital conference on Wednesday, warned of the increasing DNA backlog relating to gender-based violence cases at police forensic labs.
Bosman, DA Western Cape spokesperson for social development, said he submitted a dossier to the president’s national council on gender-based violence.
“It outlines the status of gender-based violence in the Western Cape and the enormous backlog of DNA cases relating to gender-based violence at the SAPS forensic science laboratory,” he said.
He added: “We request that the council facilitate the collaboration of SAPS with the private sector, to outsource DNA processing so that the backlog is eradicated as an urgent priority.”
“This is well within the mandate of the gender-based violence and femicide National Strategic Plan.
Allen, the DA’s Western Cape spokesperson for community safety, said that gender-based violence, concerning the backlog in DNA processing, was recognised as a Policing Need and Priority (PNP) by the Western Cape provincial executive.
“As the DA, we support this important step and urge Minister Bheki Cele to actually live up to the Constitutional requirement that he includes PNP recommendations in policing policy for our province,” he said.
Bosman and Allen disclosed that after an oversight visit to the SAPS forensic science laboratory, they’ve learned that it would take at least 18 months to eradicate the backlogged cases.
“Victims of gender-based violence and femicide have suffered enough, but the centralised process in Pretoria delays and denies justice even longer for them and their families,” Bosman said.
He added: “This is a result of SAPS’ failure to secure a tender process that would allow the DNA analysis machines and related equipment to be serviced.”
“Instead, we have a situation where many machines have been out of service for over 1200 days.”
Many gender-based violence survivors subsequently witnessed their perpetrators walk free, without being convicted.
Allen and Bosman said that the chaos in the system jeopardises the prevalence of justice for many.