WSU ALUMNUS AND STUDENT HAVE DEVELOPED A CRIME INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM TO COMBAT RAPE CRIMES

Combining their passion for technology with the desire to address rising crime concerns, Buzwe Dlembula and 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 offense.  In the Eastern Cape, OR Tambo District Municipality has a crime contribution of 13.9% indicating an increase of 6.7%. 

The 22 year old Mount Frere born, Dlembula who was raised by his grandmother said the reason for coming up with the CIS idea came from seeing rising crime statistics in his community.  

“With an increasing number of rape crimes and babies that are being dumped in open fields with no trace of who their mothers are, we have designed this system to try and assist the Department of Health, South African Police Services and the Department of Home Affairs to easily trace those people,” said Dlembula.

In a remarkable display of innovation and academic excellence, the Walter Sisulu University Bachelor of Physics student and Bachelor of Science Computer Science graduates further said that they are currently working on the back end of the system and patenting the system 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 no 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 trainings on how to use it.

“We have done background research to see if there is any system that operates like this one, and we could not find any and that gave us the confidence to continue with developing it,” said Dlembula.

The system will also determine the people who committed crimes before and never served any sentence for their them.

By Anita Roji