Western Cape police say rape kit stock is holding, after DA warning over 1 August supply

The Western Cape has enough rape evidence kits in stock, the province’s top police officer said on Tuesday, closing off a supply dispute that ran through the winter and reached the acting police minister.

Lieutenant General Sizakhele Dyantyi, the Western Cape provincial commissioner, told a media briefing at the SAPS provincial head office in Green Point that there is no current shortage of the forensic kits used to collect evidence after a sexual offence. He was speaking at the release of the province’s first quarter 2026/27 crime statistics.

As IOL reported on 15 September, the commissioner’s statement follows earlier findings and political claims that some stations and specialised units across the province had little or no stock.

What the kits are, and why the count matters

The kits in question are the D1 forensic evidence collection kit, used for adults, and the D7 kit, used for children. Both are opened by a trained examiner after a report is made, and both carry the swabs and containers that become the physical evidence in a prosecution.

A station without a kit cannot complete that collection on site. The case does not disappear, but the first hours after a report are when evidence is most intact, and that is the part a stockout puts at risk.

The kits sit in police stations and in the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Violence units, known as FCS units, which investigate sexual offences and crimes against children.

The contract lapsed on 3 April

The supply question has a dated paper trail.

The previous rape kit supply contract expired on 3 April 2026. In response to a parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance, Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia said SAPS procured 11 540 D1 and D7 kits during April, after that expiry.

In June, the DA, through its lawyers, placed Cachalia on terms over what it described as a crisis in the supply of the kits. The party said it had learnt that SAPS would not have kits available for testing beyond 1 August 2026.

On 14 and 15 May, DA oversight visits found that numerous FCS units and police stations in the Western Cape had no kits available, the party said. It questioned how more than 11 000 kits could have been procured in April if frontline investigators could not reach them weeks later, and filed a complaint against the Western Cape provincial supply chain head, Major General Voskuil, over what it called a failure to ensure regular supply.

Information drawn from SAPS planning and annual needs assessments points to a wider gap. Provincial management allocated 20% of the required kits to stations across the Western Cape, and shortages or complete absences of both the D1 and D7 kits were recorded in several policing areas.

What the commissioner’s answer settles, and what it does not

Dyantyi’s statement addresses the position now, and it is the most current word on stock in the province. It does not explain the May visits, and it does not set out how many kits each station and FCS unit is holding, or when the next order arrives.

That distinction matters to the person who walks into a station to report. For them the question is not whether the province has stock. It is whether the station in front of them has a kit on the shelf that day, and whether the examiner is available to use it.

This masthead is not able to say the earlier findings were wrong. The commissioner’s position is that there is no shortage at present, and the earlier record stands as it was made.

The state’s response, and where it worked

The procurement in April, the parliamentary answer from the acting minister, and the commissioner’s public statement on Tuesday are the three points where the system answered. A lapsed contract was replaced inside the month it expired, and the province’s most senior officer has now put his name to the stock position in public.

That is the response a reader should weigh against the May findings. It is also the reason the question of distribution, rather than supply, is the one still open.

What happens next

The DA’s complaint against the provincial supply chain head sits with SAPS. The party’s legal letter to the acting minister remains on the record, and its stated deadline of 1 August has passed without a public accounting of what happened at station level on that date. Parliament’s portfolio committee on police is the body that can call for the station by station figures, and it has not yet done so.

Source: IOL, SAPS says Western Cape has enough rape kits, despite reported shortages, 15 September 2026.