Correctional Services Deputy Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize will on Saturday, 24 October, meet sentenced offenders and their victims as part of a Victim-Offender Mediation programme to be hosted by Fort Hare University’s Department of Criminology and the Department of Correctional Services in Middledrift, Eastern Cape.
The Victim-Offender Mediation programme is part of the restorative Justice System Programme launched in 2007 in an effort to heal the wounds of crime and to reduce repeat offending.
Deputy Minister Mkhize will deliver the keynote address on restorative justice. She is expected to reflect on what the Department of Correctional Services is doing to put the needs of the victims at the heart of the criminal justice system.
Speakers will include the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Fort Hare, Professor John Hendricks. The first Victim-Offender Mediation programme took place in Fort Beaufort with the assistance of students from the University of Fort Hare.
Members of the media are invited to attend as follows:
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009
Venue: Middledrift Community Hall, Middledrift, Eastern Cape
Time: 10h00 to 12h00
Enquiries or confirmations:
David Hlabane
Cell: 082 052 3499
Thabiso Matshaba
Cell: 078 547 0775
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
22 October 2009
