THE South African Police Service will acquire an automated fingerprint information system within 12 to 15 months, Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi said in Parliament on Wednesday. During debate on his budget vote, Mufamadi said many of the current backlogs and blockages in the criminal justice system can attributed to the lack of an AFIS. “This project will rejuvenate our criminal justice system, with enormous benefits to detection rates, acceleration of the successful closure of investigations, reduction of the number of awaiting-trial prisoners, and facilitation of sentencing in our courts, particularly by repeat offenders,” Mufamadi said.