Forensic service chaos hampering prosecutions

From: MARY DE HAAS Durban

WILLIAM Saunderson-Meyer’s column last week (“We cannot afford another fool in gold braid”) draws appropriate parallels between deaths in police custody during apartheid and those which occur now – hundreds of people have died in custody for at least the past 15 years.

The four convictions the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) secured in 2015/16 resulted from disciplinary hearings. There were no criminal convictions for custody deaths (but 30 for deaths as a result of SAPS action).

Ipid suffers from serious problems which are exacerbated by the directorate not having sufficient independence from the police insofar as crime scene and ballistics investigations are concerned. Like the SAPS, they are also hampered by the atrocious state of forensic services.

The handover of forensic mortuary services to the Department of Health a decade ago has had disastrous consequences, especially in this province. KwaZuluNatal has lost virtually all its experienced pathologists so junior pathologists do not receive the mentoring they need. There are reportedly no pathologists at the Pietermaritzburg mortuary.

The chaotic state of forensic mortuary services is a result of wilful negligence on the part of the department.

The consequences for justice are dire, and these services must be removed from the control of the Department of Health.

STRUGGLING: A reader says the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s problems are exacerbated by them not having sufficient independence from the police in crime scene and ballistics investigations.