BROKEN machinery and a dilapidated building are what greeted members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police when they conducted an oversight visit to the provincial SAPS forensic science laboratory (FSL) in Amanzimtoti on Wednesday, March 29. One of the buildings is in the CBD behind the post office.

Committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said the visit was in line with Section 55 (2) of the Constitution, which empowers Parliament to provide a mechanism to ensure that all organs of state are accountable to it.

“The visit was necessary because the Amanzimtoti FSL was damaged significantly during the 2022 flooding in the province. The visit will assess the level of damage and progress with repairs to ensure the laboratory functions optimally,” said Joemat-Pettersson.

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Vusi Khoza who is a member of the committee said they learned with shock that despite the poor state of one of the two buildings, the police still continued to pay almost R500K in rent per month.

“That is almost R6m annually. For that money, by now, we could have built our state-of-the-art laboratories instead of renting dilapidated buildings that hinder police work. We have always had floods in Amanzimtoti, and we will continue to have more. Why are we then still renting a building that is prone to flooding?” asked Khoza.

While he was glad that some work was being done at the FSL, Khoza said their preliminary findings have shown that some of the equipment is broken, which means some samples have to be taken to other provinces for analyses.

Located in the CBD behind the post office, the laboratory suffered more damage between 2010 and 2017 as a result of floods. It is tasked with carrying out forensic analyses which are crucial in solving certain criminal cases.
Joemat-Pettersson said that as the country intensifies the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and other crimes, a fully efficient FSL function is critical in driving the science-led conviction of perpetrators. Currently, the country has a backlog of over 240 000 DNA analyses, which has hamstrung the fight against crime, especially GBV and murder cases.

Many prominent cases in Amanzimtoti have stalled over the years, but no explanation has been given on why they have not gone anywhere. Some of these include that of Reverend Liezel de Jager who was killed in her home in 2021. Numerous shooting cases have also remained unsolved.

The Department of Police have not issued any response pending a final report by the committee.

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