Sign up with GoogleA STAGGERING 427319 police cases remain unsolved, many because work on crucial evidence like DNA, ballistics, blood tests and other forensic material linking criminals to crimes is not being done.
This figure includes 183988 crimes of murder, attempted murder, rape and assault from April last year to March 2006.
The forensic work for a further 780000 cases that make it to court can take up to a year, causing these cases to be postponed, or even struck off the roll.
The Sunday Times has been told by several forensic specialists at the two laboratories in Pretoria and Cape Town that the main reason for the backlog is that two state-of the-art machines, worth almost R100-million, are gathering dust.
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A210392
This figure includes 183988 crimes of murder, attempted murder, rape and assault from April last year to March 2006.
The forensic work for a further 780000 cases that make it to court can take up to a year, causing these cases to be postponed, or even struck off the roll.
The Sunday Times has been told by several forensic specialists at the two laboratories in Pretoria and Cape Town that the main reason for the backlog is that two state-of the-art machines, worth almost R100-million, are gathering dust.
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A210392