The National Forensic Oversight and Ethics Board, also known as the DNA board, said the gathering of samples from convicted offenders was proving to be difficult, reports EWN.
It briefed Parliament’s Police Committee on Friday (18 March) during hearings on the Forensic Procedures Amendment Bill. The Bill aims to address a lacuna by removing the time limit on the taking of buccal samples from already imprisoned Schedule 8 offenders.
The board said it was not happy about the low number of convicted offenders who have a DNA profile on the system. It said some convicts just flatly refused to give DNA samples.
Board deputy chairperson Raymond Sono said another challenge was the police’s inability to collect samples from suspects arrested for schedule eight offences, which include rape. “The low compliance rate by detectives in taking buccal samples from suspects charged for schedule eight offences continues to impact negatively on the performance of the National Forensic DNA Database.”
The board said the long-term plan was to see all provinces with fully-fledged forensic laboratories to match the growing population.
Earlier, MedicalBrief reports, the committee was told by COSATU that it was concerned with the Bill's limitation on collecting buccal samples. Serious criminal offences are excluded by limiting the collection of buccal samples to persons charged for, convicted of, and imprisoned for only Schedule 8 offences.
COSATU proposed that:
● The Bill be amended to require SAPS to take buccal samples of all persons who are charged. Thus, remove reference to Schedule 8 in the Amended Act.
● The Bill be amended to require buccal samples to be collected from all persons convicted and imprisoned irrespective of which Schedule Offences the person was convicted of and imprisoned for.
Ms Vanessa Lynch, who was involved in the drafting of the Bill, told the committee concluded that the rate of recidivism in South Africa is “one of the highest in the world”.
“Many convicted offenders are more likely to be involved in crime than the general population and that their inclusion in the Convicted Offender index in the National Forensic DNA Database (NFDD) is critical. Thousands of convicted offenders are being released from incarceration without their buccal samples having been taken, potentially leaving them unlinked to previous crimes and future crimes and the failure to capture this data undermines an essential element of the NFDD,” Lynch said.
“It is without question that the Bill should be prioritised as being one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in the crime-fighting arsenal available to SAPS today. The promulgation of this Bill will, moreover, counteract the opportunistic reliance by convicted offenders on the apparent limit of the two-year period for the taking of buccal samples from the prison population, as well as dealing with any refusals to cooperate.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA’s compulsory DNA sampling legislation ‘should also apply to convicted criminals’
National Forensic DNA Database collection failure
Cele plans legislation to capture DNA of all South Africans