Over 36 000 sexual offence cases backlogged in the western Cape due to unserviced DNA sample machines at SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory

 The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape has made a call to the president of South Africa and his command council for GBV to act swiftly and resolve what they call “DNA analysis backlog” in the province.

The DA revealed that there are over 36 000 sexual offence cases outstanding because of what they believe is caused by the malfunctioning DNA machines at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory in Platekloof.

Speaking at a DigiCon on Wednesday, Gillion Bosman who is the DA’s spokesperson for social development in the Western Cape confirmed that they have submitted a Dossier to the president and his command council for GBV where they are outlining and stressing the importance of having the machines at the SAPS Forensic Science laboratory fixed, in order to speed up the process of analyzing DNA specimen still outstanding. 

 “I have submitted a dossier to the President’s National Council on Gender-Based Violence which outlines the status of GBV in the Western Cape and the enormous backlog of DNA cases related to GBV at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory. Our request is 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". 

The DA in the Western Cape is concerned about the number of unresolved sexual offence cases and Bosman has blamed the SAPS' incompetence, He says that SAPS has failed to secure a tender process that would allow the DNA analysis machines and related equipment to be serviced, instead there’s a situation where DNA machines have been out of service for 1 200 days.   

Done By: Yandisa Qwabe     


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