EDITORIAL | Tuesday is the justice system’s chance to prove commitment to those who live here. Will it?

The 20-year-old man accused of murdering a sex worker at a Johannesburg warehouse where five other bodies were discovered is back in court on Tuesday. He cannot be named because his identity parade is yet to take place, despite his arrest happening nearly two weeks ago. 

Though he is facing one murder charge, police are investigating whether he can be linked to the other bodies discovered at the building in the centre of the city. This while postmortems are being conducted and none of the victims has been identified. 

Gauteng NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane has said the state is still awaiting the results of postmortems and DNA tests, stalling the matter. The backlog in our DNA system has been widely reported on. The Hillary Gardee murder trial was postponed many times because of outstanding DNA results. Just three months ago, police minister Bheki Cele said the problem with backlogs at forensic pathology laboratories was due to “supply chain management”. But, he added, “we believe we’ve fixed that now”.

The police portfolio committee in parliament heard in May that the DNA testing backlog had increased from 117,000 in December to almost 173,000 in the first week of March. The sex worker murder case is a stark reminder of our court system often being bogged down by delays that could be prevented. This will be a test to see if Cele can be believed regarding the problem being fixed. It will be a tragedy if it takes months to identify the women.

Meanwhile the identity parade has also been delayed, according to the lawyer, because of a bungle on the state’s side, and according to the state, because the accused demanded to have his lawyer present. Either way, this is not a good start. There cannot be another postponement of the identity parade.

Sex workers in the area interviewed by TimesLIVE say they fear the accused will be released on bail. “We are scared. If he gets bail, this guy will finish us all,” one said. “The challenge in SA as a sex worker is when you go to the police station to report a case like this, they don’t take it seriously. They will call you names and if you are an immigrant sex worker like me they will use that against you.” 

Already the accused has faced a rape charge that was withdrawn by the complainant. Tuesday is an opportunity for our courts to show the judicial system is committed to protecting everyone who lives here. Justice delayed is justice denied.