JUSTICE DELAYED AS NO FORENSIC LAB

MBABANE - It is a fact that in order to bring criminals to justice, police and prosecutors need evidence.

This is because guilt or innocence can be proven through physical traces discovered and examined by forensic experts like fingerprints, hair samples or DNA.
One of the fundamental components of the criminal justice system is ensuring that the evidence that is presented before a court of law is accurate and can enable police to secure convictions.

Central to the collection and analysis of such evidence is ensuring that a forensic laboratory is put in place and effectively capacitated.
However, for many years, the Kingdom of Eswatini has not been able to set up a fully-fledged national forensic facility.
While the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) does have such a facility of its own, it is not well equipped to ease the burden of having to send certain exhibits or samples outside the country for tests.

As a result, several criminal cases end up delaying or worse, suspects acquitted due to lack of evidence.
It is not surprising that quarterly or annual reports issued by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs have for years mentioned that one of the main challenges has been the lack of a national forensic laboratory.

In the Annual Performance Report for the Financial Year 2019/2020 tabled at the House of Assembly last week, the issue has been overemphasised again.

Challenge

“The challenge is the non-availability of a national laboratory in the country, which results in the backlog of cases as the country relies on the laboratory in South Africa for forensic examination,” the report tabled last week read.
The question that begs to be answered is why exactly is government not considering setting up such a facility?

The question on why such a facility is critical for the justice system of the country is perfectly answered by the many cries over the years that there were unsatisfactory reports around how courts could not finalise cases on the court roll, including the reasons for postponement of cases in criminal courts. Both judges and magistrates have for years decried that the country needed to set up the facility in order to ensure justice in criminal matters.

The non-availability of the facility also derails the work of the REPS because many crime investigations never result in the arrest of a suspect.
The Eswatini police have limited resources to carry out complex investigations, and limited capabilities in areas such as preservation of crime scene evidence and utilisation of DNA to assist in prosecutions.

During a workshop organised by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza raised a concern about how perpetrators committed sex­ual of­fences and got away with them due to lack of ev­i­dence caused by de­layed or lost lab re­sults.

Judge Mabuza, who is also the ICJ Commissioner, highlighted that while po­lice were do­ing a tremen­dous job in al­lo­cat­ing and lock­ing up the cul­prits, the challenge was hav­ing to wait for con­fir­ma­tion of ev­i­dence from the foren­sic lab­o­ra­tory in Pretoria, South Africa.

Mabuza highlighted how mul­ti­ple coun­tries like Zim­babwe, Botswana, Namibia, Le­sotho and the Kingdom of Eswatini re­l­ied on the same lab­o­ra­tory and that by the time the case went to court, the re­sults were not back in the coun­try, which then jeop­ar­dised the case and per­pe­tra­tors eventually walked free be­cause of lack of ev­i­dence.

Raised

With the issue being of national concern for years, the country, government in particular, should be experiencing a positive turn-around strategy that will see funds being raised for the construction of the facility, which will definitely become an additional arsenal in the fight against crime.

In an interview with Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Lorraine Hlophe, she stated that the ministry was responsible for the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) chambers but that it received dockets from the police after investigations. “The responsibility of sending specimen to forensics falls under the police department. Our report only makes mention of the same because it delays the completion of investigations and subsequent hand over to us for prosecution,” said the PS.

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