Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Minister, and members of the House, the ANC conference and the 2009 election manifesto stated the priority that fighting crime and corruption will take in the programme of government. The ANC further promised the modernisation of the criminal justice system.
We undertook to enhance our fight against crimes committed against women and children. Today, I stand before this House and I can state with confidence: The ANC leads; the ANC delivers. [Interjections.] [Laughter.]
It is of special significance that this Bill is before the House during Women's Month, as it will contribute significantly towards the fight against crimes committed against women and children.
The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill amends two pieces of legislation: the Criminal Procedure Act, Act 51 of 1977, and the South African Police Service Act, Act 68 of 1995.
The Bill allows for the establishment by the SAPS of a DNA database of DNA profiles that will be used to identify perpetrators of crime. DNA is as unique as fingerprints and, while perpetrators can wear gloves to hide their fingerprints or wipe the scene after the crime is committed, they almost always leave DNA at a crime scene.
What will happen once this Bill becomes an Act, in simple terms, is that at the crime scene the police will look for evidence. Amongst the evidence would be that DNA that is left behind. This will be known as "crime scene samples", and it will be loaded onto the database under the crime scene index.
The police will then run that sample against the other indexes on the database and, if they get a hit, they will be able to identify the perpetrator. If they don't get a hit, they will continue the investigation until they find a suspect and arrest him or her. Just as they take fingerprints from the suspect, they will also take the suspect's DNA.
This will then be run against the crime scene index and, if it matches the profile derived from the crime scene, solid evidence that can be presented in a court will then have been achieved. DNA samples will be taken by specially selected and trained police officers through a nonintimate buccal sample. Training will be conducted by the Department of Health as per the National Health Act.
The Bill puts an obligation on the SAPS to take the DNA of suspects in serious and violent crimes. After some deliberations in the committee, a list of these crimes, where SAPS has no choice but to take DNA samples, was developed and inserted in Schedule 8 in the Criminal Procedure Act.
This was done to ensure that we prioritise the most serious and violent crimes. These crimes include crimes such as treason, terrorism, murder, rape, sexual offences, robbery and housebreaking as well as various other crimes.
In taking into consideration legislative developments as we were processing the Bill, torture and the trafficking of people were also included in the list of offences as the Bills covering these offences were signed off during that time. Apart from these crimes, where the SAPS must take DNA samples, it will have the discretion to take samples from anyone arrested for other crimes if it has reason to believe that the suspect is linked to another crime.
Furthermore, the Bill makes provision for the Minister to extend this list of crimes, as is needed. The Bill amends the South African Police Service Act, Act 68 of 1995, with the insertion of a new chapter, 5B. This chapter spells out for what purposes comparative searches can be conducted on the DNA database. These are: as a criminal investigative tool in the fight against crime; to identify persons who might have been involved in the commission of offences, including those before the Bill comes into operation; to prove the innocence or guilt of an accused person in the defence or prosecution of that person; and to assist with the identification of missing persons or unidentified human remains.
Very importantly, the committee felt that provision should also be made for the use of the DNA database for the purposes of exoneration of convicted offenders. If a person is serving a sentence and that person knows that he or she is innocent, and can prove his or her innocence with DNA, the Bill allows for it. This is in line with our human-rights basis.
The Bill allows for different indices. These are the crime scene index, the arrestee index, the convicted offender index, the investigative index and the elimination index. The hon Sibiya will speak in more detail on these indices and the population thereof as well as removal of profiles from these indexes.
I would just like to highlight that, in accordance with the Child Justice Act, subindices will be created for children under these indices, and different rules will also apply for the removal thereof.
Furthermore, the Bill will be applied retrospectively, and therefore the SAPS will have to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Correctional Services so as to take the DNA of already convicted offenders in our correctional facilities.
Remand detainees and those out on bail for Schedule 8 offences will also have to submit DNA. These samples will be used to populate the database. There are two reasons why it is important to do so: the high rate of re- offenders in South Africa and the nonintegration of the systems used by the various departments within the criminal justice system.
Many a time the SAPS will be looking for an offender, not knowing that he or she is already in a correctional facility serving time for another crime. This is one of the biggest challenges and something that we would urge members of the executive in this cluster to address with urgency.
Despite the billions already spent on the criminal justice system and integrated justice system revamp, very little is physically available to show the integration of these systems.
It is important that I highlight here that under the elimination index, the committee included - and this is very important in the light of the reports and the problems that we do have with criminality in the SAPS - the DNA profile of all new recruits within the SAPS to be uploaded on the elimination index.
We would have liked to include all samples of all SAPS members in this index, but were advised that the necessary labour consultation did not take place and that it would not be possible. We would, however, urge the Minister to have a discussion with SAPS management and the unions and look at the possibility of getting it done, firstly on a voluntary basis with the view of eventually making it compulsory through an amendment of this Bill.
In the missing persons and unidentified human remains index, provision is made for familial searches. This is the only place where we do allow familial searches. If a child goes missing, the parents can provide DNA of the child through a hairbrush or whatever else is available, that can assist the police in the search for this child. This is something that we believe is extremely important in the light of the many children that do go missing in our country. This index and familial searches will also be used in cases of natural disasters or big accidents.
The Bill provides for compliance with quality management systems to ensure that the evidence cannot be challenged in court. Section 15Q provides for the analysis, retention, storage, destruction and disposal of samples. It is only crime scene samples that will be kept indefinitely. All other samples will be destroyed after the profiles have been loaded onto the DNA database.
Section 15S provides for offences concerning the abuse, misuse, manipulation, disclosure, loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of information on the National Forensic DNA Database, with a term of imprisonment not exceeding 15 years for a natural person and a fine for a juristic person.
DNA is valuable to insurance and medical companies. The committee wanted to ensure that there is a strong deterrent put in place in order to make sure that they do not entice members of the police service to give them DNA profiles.
Section 15T makes provision for training and awareness programmes. The Secretariat for Police must ensure that the development of guidelines for awareness programmes are developed, the implementation thereof monitored and that it is assessed.
Section 15V establishes a national forensic oversight board. The hon Schneeman will address the topic of the board and its functions in more detail. Let me just highlight two issues: The board will have an advisory and oversight function and will also be the body to which people can complain when they feel that their DNA sample has been abused.
Hon Minister, the costing and the implementation plan presented to the committee is a concern. The department appeared before the committee three times on this issue, and it was only through persistence that we eventually got to a point where we could agree that we had received something that we can work with.
As a result of this, the committee has decided that it wants a quarterly implementation and expenditure report so as to monitor the implementation of the Bill. Eventually they told us that it will take 511 days to get the new system up and running.
It doesn't mean that the Bill can't be implemented. In the meantime, it will just work with the old system there. The implementation of the Bill and the cost to the state is high, but we believe that South Africa needs this, and when it is properly implemented the benefits that we, as a country and a people, will reap from it will far outweigh the initial financial costs.
This is not the silver bullet that will put an end to crime, but it will go a long way, supported by proper investigation, to increase our guilty verdicts in court. It will go a long way in providing justice to the women and children who are the victims of rape, murder, and other violent crimes. It will send out a strong message to the criminals out there and to those who are contemplating crime that the ANC government is serious about fighting crime and ensuring the safety of our people.
I want to thank the members of the committee for their dedication and the spirit in which we could engage on this Bill. There was a shared support for the Bill, and most of you most of the time did not try to make cheap politics from the Bill.
I would like to thank the Secretariat for Police, the legal team and the interested parties, who sat through every minute of every meeting; their dedication is appreciated. Some of them are in the gallery today.
As always, the contributions of the parliamentary researchers, empowered members. Thank you, as well, to all committee secretaries who worked on the Bill.
I would like to thank Maj Gen Shezi from the side of the police, who was at every single meeting and who had to give us technical advice, for her patience with our sometimes not having the same knowledge that she has in the scientific field.
Minister, I also extend a word of appreciation to you and the Ministry. Your commitment and dedication in the fight against crime, though not always appreciated, does not go unnoticed. Hon Deputy Speaker, this Bill before us is a dedication to the many victims of crime who have to sit in courts and relive the trauma they have been through. We had one special submission during the public hearings from a young woman, who had been gang-raped. [Time expired.] [Applause.]