An unprecedented collaboration has seen the Department of Safety and Liaison with the University of Fort Hare signing a Memorandum of Understanding in order to address the vulnerability of Eastern Cape communities through applied policy research, social dialogue and the development of appropriate information tracking and monitoring systems.
An MoU was signed by MEC of Safety and Liaison, Helen Sauls- August at a bilateral meeting with Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare at Bhisho Boardroom witnessed by Top Management of both institutions.
Before signing the MoU, MEC Helen Sauls- August highlighted that “ these parties agree to conduct Research on various topics across the Eastern Cape during the 2014/15 to ensure that Safety and Liaison has evidence based interventions through the social crime prevention programmes and oversight over policing, to document the critical issues facing specific communities, for example Tholeni in Butterworth”.
These institutions agreed on the following outcomes
- Quality assessments of the police service and monitoring and evaluating their performance
- Identifying problem areas for early interventions
- Providing policy advice to the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) responsible for Safety and Liaison
- Make available recent, relevant and evidence based research to the MEC and the Provincial Legislature.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare Professor Larry Obi expressed the same sentiments during the signing of the MoU by saying “the University will conduct research on safety within the rural areas of the Eastern Cape province including the causes and impact of violent crimes on rural communities”.
