Pietermaritzburg battles drug crisis amid forensic lab backlog
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI- Hawks) have been called in by local police to help them rid the city of Pietermaritzburg of drugs.
Image: File
KwaZulu-Natal's capital city Pietermaritzburg was infested with drugs fuelled by the inadequate prosecutions in courts and a backlog in the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
Pietermaritzburg SAPS acting station commander, Thulani Masikane, made the remarks at the Msunduzi Municipality's draft Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Budget for the 2025/26 financial year consultations held at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Saturday.
Msunduzi Municipality Mayor Councillor, Mzimkhulu Thebolla, called for residents, businesses and all stakeholders to submit inputs and have their say on service delivery, development programmes and projects in the municipality.
Several residents in the meeting spoke about the drug issue in the city and communities and that nothing was done to address the issue. In March 2025, Ian Cameron, the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, visited the lab in Amanzimtoti which was affected by six flooding issues since 2016.
According to Cameron the SAPS was paying an exorbitant amount of rental on a monthly basis on a building they cannot fully utilise. Cameron said it was concerning that there has been no resolution to the problem, which has a direct impact on the staggering 140,000 DNA case backlog in the country.
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Masikane said in the past financial year 2024/25, 1563 cases of contact crime were reported - a decrease of 29 from the previous year. He said 48 people were murdered and property crime decreased from 300 to 252 while the theft of motor vehicles decreased from 91 to 61.
He said this showed there was a trajectory that reported crime was decreasing in the CBD. There was 60 attempted murders reported. Police arrested 984 people for drugs, and 35 firearms were recovered in the town.
Masikane said street robberies were still a challenge.
He said in the SAPS analysis of crime, drug abuse was identified as the main generator in the CBD. Masikane said they have plans in place including three projects with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI/Hawks) to identify the suppliers. He said operations began at the beginning of the year and could take months for an impact to be made.
'The town is infested with drugs. We will continue arresting the end users while intelligence is gathered on the main suppliers who we intend going after. We want to break the backbone of this scourge,' Masikane said.
'There are challenges we face as an organisation. We arrest people daily for drugs but our cases are not enrolled in court pending the analysis report on the drug. Prosecutors are saying the analysis of the drug has not been done. This is a serious challenge that is in the public domain. The same person we arrested is back on the streets within 12 hours. We will not allow ourselves to be discouraged. We had a meeting in Durban with the Provincial Commissioner where we raised our concern about this," Masikane said.
Masikane requested that Thebolla drive the issue of a drug master plan with the Department of Social Development. Masikane said unless all departments stop working in silos and join hands, the MM will not win the war on crime and drugs. He also called for a drug rehabilitation center.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
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