Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr Minister and Members of Parliament, the City Press of 18 August 2013 profiled the struggle of a remarkable South African, Vanessa Lynch, whose father was murdered and the file on the case closed without investigation.
Enough DNA samples of the murderers were everywhere, but no law was in place to make use of it. She used her tragedy to make certain that government would create legislation to establish a DNA databank and legislate on forensic procedures.
This Bill that we have before us, Deputy Speaker, has been watered by the tears of many mourners and many victims of rape and brutality. Although our country has state-of-the-art forensic laboratories, DNA has only been used on a case-by-case basis with no information stored in a database. This is a pity, but fortunately, it will now change.
Today we need to salute Vanessa Lynch, Rob Matthews and geneticist, Dr Carolyn Hancock, for founding the DNA Project. The fruit of their labour is the Bill before us.
To have a record of the DNA of all prisoners in jail today, as well as that of parolees and those who are detained as suspects in connection with rape, murder or armed robbery cases, is a vital tool in solving crime cases. Cope supports the legislation.
However, the transparent and ethical use of DNA samples however, must prevail at all times. The availability of records required by the Bill should not be unnecessarily cumbersome. The necessity of these records should be adequately regulated, but not restrictively in a way that makes it burdensome.
The archiving of DNA data should be governed by the proper authorities and appropriately qualified personnel. The constitutional rights of individuals should be protected. Our constitution is the very foundation of our society, and we are fully committed to its provisions.
Cope supports the establishment of a National Forensic Oversight and Ethics Board. Specific attention should be given to people who possess the necessary education, skills, intellectual capacity and ethical values.
The board, amongst other things, should establish, recommend and monitor the movement and use of such information. It should also report to Parliament and make sure there is the capacity, within all the relevant bodies involved, to implement the necessary regulations and tasks.
The training of police members must be stepped up. The Japanese hold that it is better to plan for 90 days and do the job in 10 days rather than to plan for 10 days and take 90 days to do the job.
Police training has to be raised at several levels. Strict parameters for minimum entry levels of experience and qualifications should be adhered to. The appointment of personnel with the requisite skills for the varying stages of research must receive proper consideration.
The use of DNA material that may be gathered for such purposes should be retained for advanced crime investigation and the linking of crimes. This is of the utmost importance in a country as crime-ridden as ours. Capacity- building and continuous training must be given serious attention. The advent of the internet and internationally accessible crime registers has made it impossible to regulate the type of information that can be controlled or publicised for public consumption. We have to live with this.
After this Bill is signed into law, government will have to pay attention to the manner in which warrants of search and seizure are served, how buccal samples are taken, and how the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" will be perpetuated.
The requests of the public for use of such information should be properly monitored and governed accordingly. The danger of scammers phishing for people's identities, canvasing for business or perpetrating fraud through accessing fingerprints and other collected data is real.
I say to the Minister: Welcome to the digital age. I trust that government is located in tomorrow and not yesterday. I also want to thank those members of the SA Police Service who went out of their way to support us when we were drafting this Bill.