The South African Police Service says while some police stations are experiencing a shortage of DNA and rape kits, there’s enough of these resources nationally.

National police spokesperson Vish Naidoo says the challenge came about after two suppliers bidding to supply the kits were disqualified during the tendering process for failure to meet certain requirements.

He says it was also discovered during the process that a third supplier which did meet the required specifications is now under a criminal investigation.

Naidoo says they are in the process of redistributing the evidence collection kits to those stations experiencing shortages.

He says: “The reason why we have encountered these problems is because we entered into a tender process early this year and we identified three potential suppliers two of which didn’t meet the specifications of the items we needed.”

“And of-course the third one we discovered is under criminal investigation and obviously we can not engage in business transactions with the company that is under criminal investigation,” says Naidoo.