A new DNA lab for the Eastern Cape is set to be built in East London. The lab will assist in accelerating the progress of gender-based violence and rape cases.
The province currently sends samples to other provinces for DNA testing.
A report was tabled in the provincial cabinet by the Police commissioner Lieutenent General Liziwe Ntshinga.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane says this is long overdue, and will benefit the public. “The President when he was here, he instructed all of us led by the minister of the South African Police Services to ensure that we correct this problem, this abnormality of this province, as big as it is that has been without a DNA lab.”
“We’ve been helped by other provinces to deal with all these issues that related to the rape issues that have been coming forward. So we are working around a three months’ time frame that the President gave us and the minister is part of the broad plan that the president has announced in Parliament.”
