Genevieve Serra|Published
While the country continues to mourn the deaths of 12 women whose bodies were discovered in various locations across Ekurhuleni, the chairperson of the National Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, says systemic failures and police investigations stalled by a lack of vehicles or proper facilities, including the slow processing of DNA profiles, impacted GBV cases.
According to Cameron, the National Forensic Oversight and Ethics Board’s report found that only 3,471 of 238,707 DNA profiles generated during 2025/26 were completed within 30 days.
This is why the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report process of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police matters, according to Cameron.
DNA backlog delays justice
He detailed that these are DNA profiles, not 238,707 rape victims or individual criminal cases.
He added that this distinction matters when looking at the victims who deserved justice, including their families.
He said that behind the expenditure tables, performance indicators and departmental presentations are real people whose safety depends on whether police institutions actually work.
Cameron stated that the reports adopted on October 14, 2026, expose failures that require more than another promise to prioritise gender-based violence and femicide.
“We cannot expect professional investigations while failing to provide secure accommodation, working vehicles, manageable caseloads and proper facilities for preserving evidence,” he said.
“Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo was 38 years old. She went for an afternoon run in Kempton Park and never returned. Her eight-year-old daughter was the first to raise the alarm when her mother did not come home,” Cameron said while speaking about the victims who have since lost their lives.
“A few days later, her body was found.
Police stations failing to meet domestic-violence standards
“Dineo Evelyn Motapane, also 38, was found dead beside a road in KwaThema, Springs, on 15 September. Her family had been preparing for another funeral when they learnt of her death. She leaves behind a two-year-old daughter.
“Two women with names, families, routines and children who needed them. Two families now waiting for answers.
“Their deaths formed part of a wider series of killings of women under investigation in Ekurhuleni. Police must establish who was responsible for each death, whether any cases are connected, and what evidence can support prosecution.
“We cannot assume links or motives before investigators establish them.”
The bodies were found between July and September.
Cameron said that, across 799 police-station visits between October 2024 and September 2025, not a single assessment recorded full compliance. This was part of the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service’s assessments under the Domestic Violence Act.
Poor facilities threaten investigations
“Many showed significant compliance, but weaknesses persisted in protection-order administration, record-keeping and supervision,” he added.
“Every station with identified shortcomings should have a dated corrective plan, an accountable commander and a follow-up assessment.
“Victim-friendly policing must also mean more than a designated room with a sign on the door. It requires privacy, properly trained officers, respectful treatment, access to support and a detective who keeps complainants informed.
“The condition of specialist Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units is equally troubling.”
Cameron stated that, at Pietermaritzburg, committee members raised concerns about overcrowding, break-ins, inadequate toilets and flooding that reportedly damaged dockets. These are investigators handling rape, child abuse and other deeply sensitive cases.
“We cannot expect professional investigations while failing to provide secure accommodation, working vehicles, manageable caseloads and proper facilities for preserving evidence.”
He then shifted his focus to DNA, stating that it had underlying failures.
DNA delays require accountability
“The statutory requirement provides for analysis and loading within 30 days of laboratory receipt, subject to specified exceptions for compelling priority-related reasons,” he added.
“SAPS must account for those exceptions. Moving an internal performance target to 90 days does not remove the legal reporting obligation.
“The outstanding Biology Section workload includes substantial numbers of reference samples, not simply rape exhibits. We still need a proper breakdown of outstanding forensic work relating to rape, sexual offences against children and murders of women and children.
“A DNA match may identify a suspect, connect offences or exclude an innocent person. It is an investigative lead, not proof of guilt, and detectives must be equipped to follow it.
“Prosecutors can request priority testing for matters approaching court, but what happens to cases that never reach that stage? How many investigations have stalled, hearings been postponed or prosecutions been affected because forensic results were unavailable?”
Calls for access to sex-offender register
Cameron reminded the state that South Africa has a National Register for Sex Offenders, yet ordinary citizens cannot freely search it.
“We are calling for lawful public access to verified information about convicted sexual offenders, with appropriate safeguards,” he said.
“But opening the register will not repair a forensic laboratory, find a missing docket or investigate a rape. Those duties remain essential. Nor would a register of sexual offenders, by itself, explain or prevent every murder of a woman.”
He said the Independent Police Investigative Directorate also recorded 116 allegations of rape involving police officers in 2025/26, compared with 95 the previous year.
“South Africa needs a costly forensic recovery programme, stronger FCS investigative capacity, functioning victim-friendly services and proper accountability at station level. Parliament must demand quarterly evidence of progress, not merely assurances that action is under way,” said Cameron .
Civil-society calls for reform
Responding to Cameron’s comments, Siya Monakali of Litha Labantu, an organisation that advocates for the rights of women and children, said that they called for sustained institutional accountability and meaningful reform within South Africa’s criminal justice system.
“While initiatives aimed at bringing attention to these failures and advancing change are welcome, the scale and complexity of the crisis require more than short-term campaigns and public commitments,” he said.
“What is needed is a sustained response that addresses the institutional weaknesses that have allowed these failures to persist.”
He said the proposed 30-day campaign to address some of the challenges within the criminal justice system also raises a broader question about institutional urgency and accountability.
“If government institutions can mobilise around a defined 30-day intervention, why has there not been the same urgency in addressing failures that have been documented and raised over many years?
“The shortcomings within policing, forensic services and the investigation of sexual offences are not new developments. They are longstanding challenges that have continued despite existing legislation, policies, institutional structures and repeated public commitments to address GBVF.”