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Chairperson of the portfolio committee on police Tina Joemat-Pettersson is confident that, through the committee’s “intervention and insistence, the longstanding DNA case exhibit backlog and the dysfunction at the national Forensic Science Laboratory will soon be resolved”.
The backlog spans a period of almost four years, but Joemat-Pettersson said engagements between her committee, the management of the SA Police Service (SAPS) and the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) as well as National Treasury have yielded some “light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the processing of DNA samples” that had been collecting dust, and the Property Control and Exhibit Management information technology (IT) infrastructure used to store forensic data.
“Following the fruitful engagement, we are now confident that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The commitments we received here are a first step towards ensuring justice to victims of gender-based violence,” said Joemat-Pettersson in a media statement circulated on Thursday.
In November last year, Police Minister Bheki Cele told the committee the backlog was a whopping 117 738 cases.
At the end of December, the backlog had quickly grown to 142 504 cases, the portfolio committee was informed, and at the beginning of March this year, it stood at 172 787 cases, said Major General Edward Ngokha, head of the Forensic Science Laboratory.
According to Joemat-Pettersson, the committee was mostly satisfied that there was a commitment to establishing a conducive working relationship between the SAPS and Sita, following her committee’s interventions.
Read: Police lose 8 million pieces of evidence
She also welcomed the “offer by National Treasury to assist both SAPS and Sita,” saying this “will ensure the successful completion of clearing the DNA backlog and migration towards an internal [IT] system”.
In part, this migration toward the SAPS utilising its own internal system has been motivated by a need to avoid a repeat of a 2018 scenario when a private company, Forensic Data Analysts, owned by Keith Keating, switched off SAPS IT systems due to non-payment by Sita of an R11 million outstanding invoice.
Joemat-Pettersson urged all stakeholders to work collaboratively and share technical skills if the SAPS is to be successfully weaned from external service providers, especially in critical areas of work.
She revealed that the new internal system developed by Sita would be coming on line on April 6 2021.
The committee chair also took the opportunity to thank the presidency for its initiative to identify potential private-public partnerships to assist with the processing of forensic exhibits, saying “the matter requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to resolve”.
She described the lengthy litigation that resulted from the DNA backlog as “an unnecessary cost burden to the fiscus, which must be avoided”.
“The state’s finances are better directed at quality service delivery to the people of this country. The criminal justice system will be better served by the Forensic Science Laboratory functioning optimally to ensure that prosecutions are scientific, evidence-based and timely,” said Joemat-Pettersson.
She reiterated that the committee will, for its part, continue to monitor the implementation of the forensic service action plan, as well as the development of the forensic exhibit management module.
“The matter will remain on the committee’s radar until it is concluded,” she said.
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