Walter Sisulu University graduate, Buzwe Dlembula, and Bachelor of Physics student, Mphathise Dayimani, have created a sophisticated crime intelligence system by matching Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to catch criminals.
During the fiscal year of 2022/2023, nearly 53 900 individuals from South Africa reported experiencing some sort of sexual offence.
In the Eastern Cape, the OR Tambo District Municipality has a crime contribution of 13.9 percent, indicating an increase of 6.7 percent.
Mount Frere-born Dlembula (22), who was raised by his grandmother, said that the reason for coming up with the CIS idea came from seeing rising crime statistics in his community.
The WSU Bachelor of Physics student and Bachelor of Science Computer Science graduate further said that they are currently working on the back-end of the system and patenting it, so that they can hand it over to the government, specifically the Department of Health.
“I have seen so many rape crimes happening, and perpetrators getting away with them, because the victim could not identify them because there is not sufficient evidence that points at them. I thought this system would make it easier for these criminals to be caught, even without the victim being able to identify them,” said Dlembula.
Dlembula said that the plan is to hand over the system to the Department of Health and conduct training on how to use it.
