Parliament fully behind ‘overdue’ DNA Bill

MPs and various political parties fully supported the passing of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The Bill provides for the insertion of a new provision in respect of transitional arrangements contained in the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act to ensure its full implementation.

Section 7 of the Act provides for the taking of buccal (saliva) samples from any person convicted of a crime listed in Schedule 8, including rape, murder, human trafficking, robbery and culpable homicide.

The primary objective of the Bill was to contribute towards the population of a forensic DNA database, which was provided for in the Act and maintained by the South African Police Service, for the purpose of conducting forensic investigations in respect of unresolved crimes.

The Act commenced on 31 January, 2015 and the period of transition within which buccal samples would be taken from all convicted offenders expired on 31 January 2017.

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) fully supported the Bill, its shadow minster of police Andrew Whitfield said there was no reason for Cabinet to delay the passing of this Bill.

Whitfield said there were many crimes committed but no DNA record to link criminals and their future crimes.

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According to Whitfield, Cabinet had considered a national DNA population database which required every citizen to submit their DNA to the state.

“Aside from this being unaffordable, it would be unconstitutional and even if Cabinet wanted to explore this, it was no reason to stop them from bringing the original Bill to parliament,” he said.

Whitfield said the amount of time this Bill had taken, from its original drafting in 2017 should give everyone a pause for thought.

Whitfield said “the legislative arm of parliament was too dependent on the executive to bring legislation to them, surrendering their primary function to the executive and betraying their voters and constitutional commitment.

“The reason for this is because the ANC, with their majority in parliament, bypasses the constitutional imperative of parliament to hold executives to account by allowing the executive to draft almost all of our legislation.

“It is high time parliament starts to take private members and committee Bills much more seriously and to start to exercise legitimate authority over the executive so we can do justice to the millions of South Africans who have entrusted us with this responsibility,” he explained.