Calls for private labs to solve South Africa's DNA backlog grow louder

Source: Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has added its voice to calls for urgent reform, suggesting that private laboratories could provide a much-needed lifeline to process the escalating volume of untested DNA samples. According to the group, the Saps laboratory’s chronic inability to meet demand — despite repeated interventions — makes public-private collaboration not only viable but essential.

The scale of the backlog, first flagged in 2021 and growing steadily since, is impacting a wide range of cases. These include gender-based violence, sexual assault, murder, and armed robbery — where DNA evidence is often pivotal for identifying suspects, securing convictions, or exonerating the innocent. Delays have, in many cases, led to prosecutions being postponed, dismissed, or indefinitely stalled.

AfriForum argues that the lack of progress highlights systemic inefficiencies within Saps Forensic Services and warns that these delays allow perpetrators to remain at large while victims wait in limbo. The organisation believes private laboratories — which are already established in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors for testing and quality control — could be rapidly mobilised to help clear the backlog.

"Privatisation is the only logical solution. The government has repeatedly proven itself incapable of managing forensic services efficiently and unless urgent action is taken, thousands of criminal cases could be struck from the court roll due to evidence processing failures,” the organisation said.

Public-private solutions questioned

The suggestion has reignited debate over the role of private-sector solutions in public forensic science. While some critics argue that introducing private labs into the chain of custody raises legal and ethical complexities, others point to successful international models where public-private partnerships have reduced backlogs and improved turnaround times for forensic evidence processing.

Saps, for its part, has committed to addressing the backlog through internal reforms, including procurement of DNA analysis kits, system upgrades, and improved staff training. However, these efforts have been met with skepticism, given the consistent rise in the backlog figures over the past four years.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police has also expressed concern, warning that the bottleneck represents a failure of governance with direct consequences for law enforcement, judicial outcomes, and the safety of South African communities.

Unidentified bodies mount

Bianca van Aswegen, criminologist and national co-ordinator at Missing Children SA, stated that the DNA backlog is having a severe impact on missing persons investigations, with unidentified bodies accumulating in mortuaries as a result.

“There are many unidentified bodies that end up in mortuaries all over South Africa that might link to a missing person. We see that many of these unidentified bodies end up being pauper buried and get lost in the system," she said.

For the healthcare and forensic services sector, the backlog in national DNA testing highlights the growing intersection between criminal justice and medical-grade laboratory science. As the role of forensic genetics becomes increasingly important in both criminal and civil cases, the demand for capacity — and accountability — will likely drive closer co-operation between public and private labs in the years ahead.

Whether the government heeds AfriForum’s call for partnerships remains to be seen, but what is clear is that resolving the DNA testing backlog will require urgent, scalable solutions beyond the existing structures.