Gauteng DNA testing backlog drops to 5 006 cases
In the previous quarter’s crime stats, it was announced that the backlog for Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West stood at 46 281 cases combined - 5 008 new cases have since been added.
During an oversight visit to the SAPS Forensic Lab in Arcadia on November 28, the police announced that Gauteng’s DNA backlog has dropped to 5 006 cases.
The oversight visit was conducted by the DA as part of its 16 Days of Activism against violence inflicted on women and children to determine the cause of the delays in clearing Gauteng’s DNA backlog.
“During our visit, police highlighted some of the interventions that have been put in place to address this serious backlog, which has a huge impact on survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) seeing justice being meted out,” said DA’s Dorianne Arendse.
These interventions included a two-stream system dubbed “flexi-time”, in which one group of people work on the backlog whilst the other attends to new cases.
In the previous quarter’s crime stats, it was announced that the backlog for Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West stood at 46 281 cases combined – 5 008 new cases have since been added.
A concerted effort has been made to conclude gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide cases.
SAPS said space impacted the lab’s work more efficiently address the backlog.
“Even though the backlog has been drastically reduced and some cases are ready to go to court, there is a delay in this from the side of the Justice Department,” Arendse continued.
Additional oversight visits are planned for January 2023, including visits to the Justice Department to check in on the delay in cases.
Among the DA’s delegation were Gauteng shadow MEC for community dafety Crezane Bosch MPL, Gauteng shadow MEC for social development Refiloe Nt’skhe MPL, ward 92 councillor Leanne de Jager and sommunity safety spokesperson Ruhan Robinson.
“The scourge of gender-based violence must be rooted out, cases that are reported to the police must be investigated properly and justice served as soon as possible. A court case that drags on only traumatises the survivor further. The focus on gender-based violence should not only be for 16 days of the year but 365 days,” Arendse concluded.
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