Deputy Speaker, DNA evidence is to crime in the twenty- first century, and beyond, what fingerprints have been to crime for the past 100 years. While no two fingerprints have ever been found to be alike, ensuring criminal convictions worldwide, criminals have become increasingly sophisticated and security services have been forced to up their game to stay ahead of the curve.
Sophisticated crime syndicates outspend and outgun most police forces globally and ensure that fingerprints are less and less likely to be left at crime scenes. However, it is almost impossible for a criminal to fail to leave DNA evidence behind on, for example, cans, cigarette stubs, bottles, chewing gum, earphones, samples of their hair, skin, blood, saliva or semen.
In 2009 the Police portfolio committee attempted to pull the country in line with international trends by creating a legal framework by which the collection and analysis of DNA would be facilitated. There was a huge pushback from the country, largely based on rumour and ignorance in relation to human rights issues that we were ill-equipped to answer.
Therefore, we split the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill and passed the sections on fingerprints and body prints. Then in 2011 we undertook a study tour to Canada and the United Kingdom to study the impact and implementation of DNA legislation in these two countries. Having done so, the Bill then languished at Cabinet level for two long years.
What is known as the DNA Bill has finally come to, and been worked on tirelessly, by the committee. Certain political differences have arisen, such as the ANC's insistence that the selection of board members to populate the national forensic oversight and ethics board be centralised and appointed by the Minister, with zero input from the committee. This is a move that is total anathema to the DA with its open-opportunity philosophy.
Why, when so many other committees interview board members on their suitability, the Minister decided he alone should have the right to give out these jobs is a question everyone in this House should be asking. [Interjections.]
No explanation was ever given as to why the ANC was insisting on the centralisation of power under a single person, but it is undemocratic and was frankly embarrassing to witness. [Interjections.]
This is a clear case of the centralisation of power under the executive and leaves no room for oversight over and accountability of the board. The Minister, for example, has equal powers to appoint the board of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, Psira, again without any oversight from Parliament, and Psira is 100% dysfunctional.
There is also the fact that two failed attempts by the SAPS to present a proposed budget were thrown out as unacceptable. The financials were a third time presented by the very officer who has failed in 11 years to have a single docket scanned and sent to court in the multimillion rand e-docket system. Well, it seems that the database might or might not cost R1,3 billion ... [Interjections.]