The Sunday News
Nqobile Tshili, Sunday News Correspondent
THE NATIONAL University of Science and Technology is training players in the Judicial Services Commission on how to use forensic evidence in dealing with both criminal and civil matters.
Nust through its Applied Genetic Testing Centre (AGTC) aims to train police, lawyers, magistrates, prosecutors and judges on the use of DNA-based evidence.
AGTC has already made strides in solving disputed paternity as well as assisting the police in incriminating suspects through positive DNA of the accused.
In an interview, AGTC chairperson Mr Zephaniah Dhlamini said DNA evidence based investigation and prosecution of cases had not been fully exploited in the country hence the outreach.
At the moment the country’s criminal and justice sector hugely relies on circumstantial evidence, which others have criticised on the grounds that it can be manipulated to criminalise the innocent.
“Since DNA evidence is a new technology on the market, people in the judicial sector who don’t have previous experiences in dealing with this evidence must understand how it’s collected, they must understand how it’s tested and how it is presented before the court,” said Mr Dhlamini.
He said they deliberately invited lawyers, judges, magistrates, police officers and prosecutors based on their contribution to the judicial system.
“So we’re targeting lawyers, because they are the ones who stand for the accused, we’re targeting the judges on how to understand DNA evidence and also prosecutors on how to handle DNA evidence and the police.
“So we’re going to have a nationwide training of the police as well,” he said.
Mr Dhlamini said so far they have trained lawyers in Bulawayo and were expecting to spread the training across the country.
“For starters it was a phenomenon, when we called for the Bulawayo legal association we had an overwhelming response. We’ve done the Bulawayo chapter and we’re going to do the Harare chapter,” said Mr Dhlamini.
@nqotshili
