Motherwell’s Victim Friendly Centre

The Victim Friendly Facility in Motherwell

Crimes against women and children remains one of the key focus areas of SAPS. Investigations in crimes committed against women and children were taken to the next level on Thursday, 06 July 2017, when the new Victim Friendly Facility at the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) was launched in Motherwell.

The founder and coordinator of Matla A Bana, Mrs Monique Strydom, today officially opened this facility together with the SAPS Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga. Matla A Bana, a privately funded initiative, have been working closely with Old Mutual in order to obtain funding for this facility. The representative of Old Mutual, Ms Renee Palmer, was present at the opening ceremony.

This facility comprises two offices linked by a one way mirror. On the one side, the office is equipped like a play room, while the other has state of the art audio visual and video capture equipment, where social workers and specialist investigators can capture the interviews and interactions with children in cases of crimes against children.

In the past week training was also given to the FCS investigators by the specialist trainer Ms Leonore Louw from Maselouw Training. Soft skills training which deals with conflict management, stress management and emotional intelligence are some of the training skillsets provided.

The Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga, emphasised “I have full confidence that this facility will bring efficiency and effectiveness to the members of the FCS unit here, to provide a quality service of a high standard to the communities. I am overwhelmed by the existing spirit of partnership between the external stakeholders and the SAPS. We must cultivate and nourish this kind of relationship to benefit future generations.”