An unexplained discrepancy shows that the police under-reported their DNA backlog – sitting at 241 000 cases, not 173 000 as they had said – and that the situation is worse than initially feared, according to lobby group Action Society SA.
The alleged backlog of 173 000 was reported to Parliament as being up to March 2021, but a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application by Action Society SA has revealed that the backlog was actually at 241 000 in April last year.
Action Society community safety director Ian Cameron referred to a police committee hearing where MPs were previously told that the DNA backlog stood at 173 000 in March 2021.
However, the PAIA, seen by the Cape Argus, shows that the backlog stood at 241 152 in April 2021.
Cele told the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Summit in late October that police had managed to reduce the backlog to 71 000, which Cameron called “misleading”.
“He uses smoke and mirrors to make it seem as if the backlog is declining,” Cameron said, adding that Cele failed to mention he was referring to “ring-fenced” cases, which excludes new cases not processed within 30 days after June 2021.
“If Cele had been leading with integrity, he would have explained that the backlog actually continues to grow because the National Forensic Service Laboratories (NFSL) cannot handle the influx of about 18 000 new entries per month, much less work down the ring-fenced cases.”
Cameron said the revelation also voids the PAIA response from the police in July 2022, which said there was no need for the appointment of private contractors to handle the backlog as the backlog was being reduced.
Cele previously suggested to the police committee that the use of contractors was part of the solution to optimise laboratory capacity.
Cameron said: “For a government which continually claims to be fighting against gender-based violence, this ‘strategy’ seems to show an utter disrespect for victims of GBV. The GBV summit would have been the ideal stage to be honest about the DNA backlog and announce how the police department would use any available resources to solve the problem. But instead, Cele chose to continue lying to save face.”
Cameron said the backlog affects the parents of four-year-old girls Bokgabo Poo, Mia Botha and Chevonne Rusch, as they can’t register their deaths due to the backlog holding up their murder probes.
In the PAIA response, Forensic Science head Brigadier T Mulaudzi said the NFSL laboratory being built in Gqeberha was expected to be completed before the end of 2022/23.
Cape Argus PressReader article – ‘Cele chose to understate DNA backlog to save face’ (Open access)
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