** Invitation for Community Safety to Reduce Gender-Based Violence Policy Dialogue
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** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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On behalf of the Masiphephe Network, the Centre for Communication Impact (CCI) invites you to a policy dialogue on Community Safety to Reduce Gender-Based Violence.

The Masiphephe Network believes that local government has a critical central role to play in promoting, facilitating, and ensuring community safety to reduce and prevent gender-based violence.

The objectives of the policy dialogue are to:
1. facilitate shared understanding about violence, GBV and crime prevalence levels, risk factors and drivers resulting in lack of safety and insecurity; and
2. foster improved social accountability in service delivery of government departments, community leadership, the media, community members and the private sector in ensuring safer Alexandra and Diepkloof communities.

Community safety is about preventing, reducing, stopping all ways people generally; and in terms of gender-based violence (GBV); specifically, women, children, and all vulnerable groups to feel safe from violence and crime through the promotion of social cohesion and law enforcement to ensure all who live within and on the boarders of communities are "free from fear." Safety is central in preventing and reducing GBV. Safety is about ensuring the physical, psychological, or material protection of the health and well-being of individuals and the community. It is a basic human right and need in everyday life, so all people can grow and develop themselves to their full potential.

Alexandra police station recorded excessively high numbers of reported sexual offences per Table 1 below at 94% increase from January to March 2021, ranking 1st among Gauteng police stations and 6th in national top thirty police stations of reported sexual offences cases in the recent fourth quarter police statistics reports compared to the same period in 2020 and previous years.

While Diepkloof generally recorded improvements in reported statistics, there were still 324 reported cases related to murder that might include femicide, sexual offences, assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.

Redressing the safety drivers and reducing crime rates is the core mandate of various government departments especially the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison (DCSSL), the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; working with communities served, the private sector and the media. Broader and more holistic interventions that extend beyond the criminal justice system are required to adequately address underlying risks to safety in our communities. Further, the success of such interventions will depend largely upon the extent to which they are locally owned and committed to, by community members.

The details of the policy dialogue are as follows:

Date: 29 June 2021
Time: 09:30 to 14:00
Venue: TBA (This will be conducted in a hybrid format – online and on-site)

Register Now ([link removed])
Please RSVP as soon as possible with Sameen Lotfi to inform further logistical planning.
Email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

Thank you for your leadership and continued collaboration to the cause of creating community safety to reduce gender-based violence.

Sincerely,

Nonhlanhla Skosana
Masiphephe Network Project Manager, Sonke Gender Justice
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