Today, under the auspices of the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS), you have converged as various government departments and organs of civil society to discuss and elaborate on the victim empowerment programme as envisaged in the NCPS.

The NCPS recognises that the role and rights of victims are vital in addressing the effects of crime and creating crime-resistant communities.

The programme is aimed at making the criminal justice system more victim-friendly, and minimising the negative effects of crime on its victims. The empowerment of victims is aimed at creating a greater role for victims in the criminal justice system, as well as providing protection against repeat victimisation.

The current support services for victims of violence and crime in South Africa are fragmented, unco-ordinated and limited. The current scenario therefore renders them ineffective and unmanageable.

Your workshop should, inter alia, address the followng:

the training of police and justice officials with a view to introducing greater victim sensitivity and mechanisms for referral to other service providers;



the provision of more information to complaints regarding the progress of all cases, as well as information which enables them to lay complants easily; and



ways of implementing a victim support programme premised on surveys of victims' experiences of the criminal justice system.

In this new endeavour, we should be guided and led by the department of welfare. We need to realise that victims of crime and violence have rights which cannot be abrogated. Within the context of our constitution, and the developing human rights culture in our country, the rights of victims of crime are indspensable and paramount.

The intersectoral and interdepartmental approach we have adopted will go a long way in redressing the fragmented approach of the past.

I wish you fruitful deliberations!