South Africa’s DNA and ballistics analysis laboratories will start 2026 with a hefty backlog in untested samples. While labs can process hundreds of samples every day, the influx of samples due to the rate of crimes being investigated outstrips that number. Additionally, millions have been spent on overtime hours, yet the staff complement at government facilities has declined in recent years.
The scale of the backlog was recently listed by the Ministry of Police in a written response to a parliamentary question. The ministry’s response given in December stated that the South African Police Service (Saps) has four regional labs: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western and the Eastern Cape. These labs test DNA, ballistics, chemistry and biological samples.
However, toxicology analysis is done by the National Health Laboratory, which falls under the Department of Health, and those figures were excluded. In the financial years since 2023, including 2026, R39.5 million had been allocated for overtime payments to address the backlog, as well as an additional R4.5 million spent on capital assets. The number of laboratory technicians available to be deployed at the labs declined from 1 810 in 2021 to 1 694 at the end of September this year.
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The forensic science laboratory received 227 094 new samples in the first six months — April to September — of the current financial year. An additional 278 229 were carried over from the previous financial year, with a total of 210 635 exhibits being finalised by the lab by the end of September. Of the 505 323 samples that required testing in the last 18 months, the labs were thus able to process 41% of those exhibits in a six-months period.
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