‘No DNA backlog’ says deputy police chief
The South African Police Service says it does not agree with claims that its forensic labs are buckling under a backlog of DNA cases.
Management has come to the police force’s defence saying officers are working harder to crack cases.
Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya was speaking at a SAPS summit in Gauteng on Wednesday.
" There is no backlog. You cannot really punish us for working hard and say there's a backlog because we're working hard, and now we're bringing in more results. Last year alone, we received 150,000 more than the previous year because of the heightened operations."
Last month, the Portfolio Committee on Police told Parliament that the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory division has a DNA backlog of more than 140 000 cases.
Sibiya has explained that the increase in operations has helped turn the situation around.
" We've got what we call Operation Shanela and you get the numbers that are coming in of the people that are being arrested, where there's a need to take samples and DNA. Obviously, you will have a lot of workload that is coming in, but we are using also overtime to overcome the challenges."
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