The Democratic Alliance (DA) has slammed Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia's promise of a "policing reset," arguing that South Africa cannot claim to be reforming its criminal justice system while a crippling forensic DNA backlog continues to deny justice to victims of rape, murder, and other violent crimes.
At the Police MINMEC meeting on Saturday, July 25, Cachalia presented the government's National Reset Agenda for Policing and stated that policing had progressed "from reform to implementation."
Through intelligence-led policing, anti-corruption initiatives, focused interventions at 140 high-crime police stations, bolstering detective services, and stepping up the battle against femicide and gender-based violence, the plan aims to restore professionalism and public trust in SAPS. Cachalia also announced the appointment of four provincial police commissioners and the recruitment of 5,500 new constables under Project 11 000.
However, DA Deputy Spokesperson on Police Ian Cameron said the minister's address failed to confront what he described as the single biggest crisis facing South Africa's criminal justice system.
"This morning, the acting minister of police briefed South Africans after the recent MINMEC meeting. There was plenty of talk about reform, implementation, and restoring public confidence. All issues the SAPS is desperately in need of.
"But on the single greatest crisis facing our criminal justice system, the acting minister was almost completely silent. I am talking about the forensic DNA backlog."
Cameron said hundreds of thousands of forensic exhibits remained unprocessed, including tens of thousands linked to rape, murder and child sexual offence cases.
"Without DNA, investigations stall. Prosecutors cannot build cases. Trials are delayed, and convictions become harder to secure. Every day this backlog continues is another day justice is denied," he said.
He criticised Cachalia for announcing a comprehensive GBVF action plan without setting measurable targets to eliminate the forensic backlog.
"The acting minister claimed to be armed with a comprehensive action plan to tackle GBV, yet made no mention of measurable targets to eliminate the backlog. No timelines. No emergency intervention. No strategy to partner with accredited universities or private laboratories," he added.
The DA has consistently argued that SAPS should partner with accredited private laboratories and universities to accelerate forensic testing, warning that victims continue to suffer while evidence sits in laboratories for years. The party maintains that even if state laboratories were fully staffed, it would still take years to eliminate the backlog without outside assistance.
Previously, The Star reported that SAPS was grappling with a backlog of more than 30,000 GBVF-related forensic cases, with advocacy groups warning that DNA delays were undermining prosecutions, discouraging survivors from reporting crimes and eroding confidence in the justice system. The reporting also highlighted the plight of a Boksburg family who were told they could wait up to a decade for a toxicology report following the death of their son.
Women for Change described the DNA backlog as "a barrier to justice", while the DA called for urgent accountability and greater use of accredited private laboratories to ease pressure on state forensic facilities.
Cameron said South Africans would judge the success of the policing reset not by government announcements but by whether victims receive justice.
"South Africa does not need another reset agenda that ignores the elephant in the room. We need an emergency forensic recovery plan with clear deadlines, measurable targets, and transparent reporting. Until then, claims that policing reform has entered its implementation phase will ring hollow. You cannot rebuild a justice system while one of its most critical pillars remains in crisis."
The Star