Most rape convicts are repeat offenders – Bheki Cele
Govt in bid to arrest DNA testing backlogs
SA does not have a “high number of rapists” but most rape convicts are repeat offenders.
This is according to police minister Bheki Cele, who was speaking on the readiness for the upcoming presidential gender-based violence and femicide summit this week.
Cele said DNA testing backlogs were the leading cause of sexual assault and rape cases taking a long time to conclude.
But government, claimed Cele, had moved up its strategy to deal with the delays, adding this could be a thing of the past by February 2023.
Up to April 2021, there were 241,000 unresolved DNA samples at public laboratories that relate to sexual assault, rape and femicide cases.
Cele said this number has been reduced to 71,000 and should be completely dealt with by the end of January.
Despite the backlog, said Cele, government DNA laboratories had sent 15,000 criminals to jail, which he believes is commendable.
“There is not a high number that rape people. There are people that are repeat offenders, so DNA does help link rape offenders” said Cele.
“We also have 2,284 cases where the DNA links people to a crime scene ... people we have not found but we have their DNA in our bank which makes it easy to link them when they are found.
“We have more than 6,000 offenders doing life.”
Cele said the government was pulling out all stops to fasttrack DNA evidence with new laboratories on the horizon.
A new laboratory in Eastern Cape “will be finished in February and fully fledged come April,” he said.
This would help deal with the government laboratory based in the Western Cape’s backlog, he said. “People are in training.
“We have 54 staff there, 24 are in training while 24 are in new training. When the Eastern Cape lab becomes fully functional, it will take the load off Western Cape.
“In KZN the laboratory in Amanzimtoti has flooded four times, so we are moving it to the city centre. Once that one is up and running properly, it will take pressure off Gauteng.
“In Pretoria we have added eight analysts and recruited 200 BSc students who are in training and will be sent to these institutions.”
Cele said the government would direct resources to police stations that received the highest number of complaints of cases of GBV.