Dear South Africa, are our scientists fully equipped for this nation?

By Boiketlo Lamula

South Africa has two main facilities conducting scientific forensic tests: the South African Police Service (SAPS) Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), which operates 265 laboratories across the country. There is a backlog of up to 140,000 pending forensic tests for criminal cases, which has accumulated over the years. The process of collecting and testing biological samples is not complicated. Still, the lack of sufficient funding, properly maintained equipment, and staff skilled enough to perform all analyses expeditiously intensely taints the justice system.

On 3 April 2025, students from Rhodes University and members of the community of Makhanda joined together for a #JusticeForCwecwe march, a current nationwide movement. Following the example of other public universities and communities around the country, Rhodes University students took an exceptional stand during graduation week, which also happens to be recess week, to join in this movement with our local community. This movement comes because of the ongoing silent but pervasive war of Gender Based Violence that’s ravaging the streets and homes of the citizens. 

Protesters at the march for Cwecwe. Photo by: Anotida Chipfupa.

In October 2024, in the previous year, in a horrifying sequence of events, 7-year-old Cwecwe was supposedly put into a state of unconsciousness, raped, and sent home upon awakening. It is now April 2025 (6 months later!), and still no perpetrators have been arrested. This is the current case that has caused the country-wide uproar, yet this is “just” one of thousands of cases of Gender-Based Violence, one of hundreds of thousands of unsolved criminal cases in South Africa.

South Africa does not have a fully developed forensic field compared to other first-world countries, but compared to other African states, it is arguably the most developed. This is a disadvantage because it means that criminal cases that need urgent attention, such as the Cwecwe case, cannot always be dealt with swiftly. The University of the Witwatersrand states that “there is a profound lack of adequately qualified scientists” in the field of chemical pathology; the combined roles of chemistry, biology, and biotechnology are not only crucial in diagnosing natural diseases but also extremely important in solving rapes, murders and horrific crimes against humanity, so a shortage of these skills will naturally result in backlogs in the national forensic laboratories. Additionally, a Stellenbosch University scientist recently stated that SAPS-FSL approached them to perform analyses on an arson (burn) victim and requested a completely incorrect analytical technique for the analysis; thus, not only rendering the result pointless, spending money for unnecessary costs but also using sample (from the minimal number of samples collected) to conduct the analysis.

A sample of DNA is considered a biological sample because it is extracted from human beings, animals, or plants, which are living things. The process of collecting the sample, transporting it, storing and analysing it requires not only a great deal of knowledge, but also care and skill because if the integrity of the sample is compromised, sample degradation and contamination will result in an even longer time to testing and obtaining results, or perhaps never even getting the desired results. Once a DNA-containing sample has been obtained, it has to undergo several steps to clean it up and isolate the DNA; this alone requires some costly instrumentation and chemicals, and then one of several techniques can be used for analysis ranging from agarose gel electrophoresis, which is a relatively quick and simple technique that yields precise results, to more complex, highly technological and expensive techniques like mass spectrometry which cost thousands of rands just to run a single sample; which can be worth it for more undeniable results.

However, with the current economic sphere in South Africa, finding millions of rands to invest in such advanced and necessary work can be very difficult. We are already living in a nation where crime is far ahead of forensics, and for crime to be effectively dealt with, the forensic team must always be a step ahead of the criminals. Forensics is generally an overlooked and failing field across underdeveloped and developing countries, which is understandable because of its high demand for costly and advanced technological equipment. Coupled with corruption, like during the times of Bheki Cele in the high ranks of the SAPS and the times of former police chief Jackie Selebi, this failure is only exacerbated.

Some possible reforms can be considered, like establishing independent police laboratories instead of relying on the national police service-run laboratories; this includes private forensic analysts who have been adequately trained and are skilled in research and investigation. This is possible through universities training forensic scientists and analytical chemists; another possibility is also including tertiary academics/researchers in the field of analytical chemistry in these processes – and allowing them the leadership to decide on suitable analytical techniques to avoid scenarios like the one at Stellenbosch University. But even without independent police laboratories, with standing motivation and determination, SAPS could take up the initiative of sponsoring young scientists who are already taking up scientific analysis courses with the needed resources and pushing for the integration of real forensic case studies in the syllabuses. These case studies do not have to be limited to rapes and murders, but other true crime cases that South Africa suffers from, like fraud, art and money forgery and even the endless list of all the different issues that the government is failing to address in this country.

People protesting at the Justice for Cwecwe march. Photo by: Anotida Chipfupa

With murder and rape rampant in our country, the Office of the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation must also hear the calls of the citizens for justice and prioritise the importance of science in helping to bring justice.