The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has escalated the terrible 10-year delay in processing a toxicology report into an unnatural death in the Gauteng hospitals to our national counterparts in the National Assembly for assistance.
Delays in the provision of toxicology reports are criminal: they rob families of the ability to gain closure on the loss of a loved one, but more importantly, obtain justice where negligence has occurred. Prosecutions cannot take place, burials delayed, and families cannot get closure until answers are provided.
This is a direct result of the South African Police Services (SAPS) toxicology laboratories’ inability to process specimens analysis and produce reports for families of loved ones who have died under unnatural circumstances. Currently, there is a backlog in the processing of DNA and toxicology tests across the country, a staggering 140,000 cases are on hold, as Forensic Pathology Services grind to a halt. The effect on families is devastating; they remain trapped by a system unable to offer comprehensive autopsy and post-mortem reports because of missing toxicology evidence. This is despite the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Laboratories, a state-of-the-art building that has cost taxpayers R703 million and is supposed to be the new home of the most modern toxicology suite, lying incomplete and unopened.
A family in Boksburg North was told on 30 April 2025 that they would have the autopsy report for their son and husband within eight weeks. The merry-go-round, since then, has seen them shunted to three different SAPS stations, armed with the mortuary/postmortem number, and now a ‘verdict’ that they might have to wait up to 10 years for results of the toxicology report.
This is not justice. This is inhumane. This is criminal torture of a family in mourning.
The DA Gauteng has escalated the matter to the National Department of Health, through our National Health Spokesperson, Michele Clarke MP, to get justice for this family.
The DA is committed to ensuring that bereaved families are assisted in a dignified and timely manner. A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would never allow families to be disrespected and will continue to press for resolution.