Over five years, from 2020 to 2025, South Africa saw 1,853 statutory rape cases against children withdrawn due to systemic failures within the South African Police Service (SAPS). Parliament's police committee has deemed this situation unacceptable, highlighting critical issues including the slow processing times at forensic DNA labs, a nationwide shortage of rape kits, and the absence of a dedicated policy for investigating child sexual offenses. Committee chairperson Ian Cameron emphasized that these persistent challenges are allowing perpetrators to evade justice, as insufficient resources and inadequately trained personnel hamper effective investigations and lead to low conviction rates. The committee is urging for urgent government intervention to address these deficiencies.