It reported that 427 319 cases remained unsolved, many due to the lack of forensic work. These included 183 988 murders, attempted murders, rapes and assaults from April 2005 to March 2006.
Forensic specialists at laboratories in Cape Town and Johannesburg told the newspaper that the main reason for the backlog was that two machines, worth almost R100-million, could not be used due to lack of staff and skills.
Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi denied that the forensics crisis was behind the unsolved cases, saying the machines were "working like a bomb" and that some of the machines not in use were
old.
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