After a dozen years of serving the organization as National
Chair, I have decided not to make myself available for
re-election to that position. I vacate the chair of an
NGO that is wholly different, in terms of organisational
structure and management, to that which I took over. Over
the past decade or so the work of NICRO has expanded significantly
and its area of influence has increased remarkably.
At the core, though, NICRO remains the same. It is made
up of hard-working and dedicated staff and volunteers who
care deeply for their clients and make a difference at
all levels of society and who truly believe in the ideal
of a safer South Africa.
I am immensely proud of NICRO and of the opportunity of
having been able to contribute to its growth. The organisation
is well positioned to pursue its goals and remains in good
hands. I thank all my colleagues over the years on the
National Executive Council for their unstinting support
and, in particular, all the staff and volunteers who serve
the organisation so tirelessly. May NICRO go forward from
strength to strength.
Adv. P. A. L. Gamble
National Chairperson
From the Executive Director
Soraya Solomon
South Africa will soon be celebrating its tenth anniversary
as a liberated, democratic country. Many may think that ten
years is a long enough period to deal with the challenges
of unemployment, crime and poverty, but the high crime rate
and the escalation of violence are still a threat to our
newfound democracy. Over the past two years NICRO has had
to analyse its service delivery within its programme focus
areas, namely Community Victim Support, Diversion and Youth
Development, Economic Opportunities, Offender Reintegration,
NICRO Enterprise Finance and Research. The purpose of this
analysis has been to assess whether we are meeting the needs
of communities effectively and efficiently. Most importantly,
we wanted to establish whether our programmes are helping
to reduce crime. This process has meant that we have had
to take a careful look at the organisation’s ability
to meet the needs of the fast-changing socio-economic and
political environment. We are now in the transformation phase,
which will focus on organisational development issues and
our programmes. This report will give you an overview of
the excellent work being done by staff and volunteers around
the country.
One of the highlights of the past year was the public
launch of the NICRO UK Trust for a safer South Africa.
This took place on 17 June 2002 and was hosted by the
South African High Commissioner in London. A task force
from the United Kingdom who were in South Africa to
explore ways in which the transformation process in
South Africa could be supported, also visited NICRO.
As an established NGO with a long history of independent
achievement and quality service delivery to those in
conflict with the law, NICRO was a natural starting
point for these UK businessmen. Their visit was the
start of a relationship that resulted in the establishment
of this special trust, which has elected to conduct
fundraising activities in support of NICRO’s
work in South Africa.
In order to build NICRO’s capacity further and
to take care of our most important asset, our staff,
we are looking forward to incorporating the human resources
function within the NICRO structure. In the past, human
resources were dealt with on an ad hoc basis. Together
with our newly established human resources department
we are looking at improving the remuneration of staff
in recognition of their contribution to the organisation.
Remuneration of staff will no longer be automatic,
but based on performance, and this will be phased in
over a three-year period. Furthermore, the department
will implement human resources policies and procedures,
look after training and development, labour relations,
employment equity and staff support, and assist with
recruitment, selection and staff administration.
Like most NGOs, fundraising and marketing do not always
receive the priority they should, as funds usually
go to direct service delivery. On our route to becoming
a new generation organisation and operating on sound
business principles, it has become clear that it is
vital to invest in resource mobilisation. We look forward
to having a fully-fledged team in place early in the
new financial year and one of it’s first tasks
will be to put in place a strategic resource mobilisation
plan to generate income.
Reducing the crime rate in South Africa is the responsibility
of each and every citizen. Our staff, board members,
volunteers and donors embrace the vital work of NICRO
and we thank them for this.
We would like to invite all citizens to become part
of building our democracy and help us create a safer
South Africa.
Soraya Solomon
Executive Director
Nicro
National Executive
President:
Prof K Asmal
Mpumalanga:
Mr B P Maseko
National Chairperson:
Adv P A L Gamble
Northern Cape:
Mr R Morris
Member for Finance:
Mr R Klotz
NorthWest:
Rev K Molete
Eastern Cape:
Ms E Yerolemou
Western Cape:
Mr M Mutlane
Free State:
Mr H Goliath
Co-opted member:
Mr S Karjieker
Gauteng:
Mr V Smith
Co-opted member:
Mr G Gajjar
KwaZulu-Natal:
Mr W Petersen
Staff representative:
Mr B Sibanda
Limpopo:
Mr C Dipela
Staff representative:
Ms Lesleigh Timothy
Diversion
and Youth Development Programme (DIV)
Deon Ruiters
National Programme Specialist
It is estimated that some 24 000 young people in conflict
with the law were channeled away from the criminal justice
system and afforded diversion options in the twelve-month
period from April 2002 to March 2003. NICRO was nationally
responsible for diverting 17 807 of these. NICRO is indisputably
the primary service provider of diversion programmes in
South Africa.
NICRO’s Diversion Programme, which is operative
in all nine provinces of South Africa, has continued to
respond dynamically to the changing needs of young people
in conflict with the law. This has resulted in the revision
of diversion options already in place, as well as exciting
innovations and programmes that are more culturally appropriate
and relevant to young people’s circumstances.
Highlights
In February 2003 NICRO’s efforts to entrench the
rights of children in South African legislation, which
spanned more than a decade, culminated in the presentation
of its submission to the Justice and Constitutional Affairs
Portfolio Committee around the Child Justice Bill [B49
of 2002]
As a member of the Child Justice Alliance, NICRO also undertook
three research projects to make available more information
to inform the debate on child justice
The output-based performance of the Free State, Limpopo,
Northern Cape and Western Cape programmes was consistently
high throughout the year: each of these provinces significantly
increased the number of juvenile offenders diverted from
the criminal justice system
Following extensive research and in response to an in-depth
needs assessment, NICRO Gauteng finalised its plans to
launch three new diversion initiatives: the Drug Education
and Prevention Programme, the Anger Management Programme
and the Parenting Skills Programme
Focused schools-based intervention programmes in the Northern
Cape
Mpumalanga’s rural outreach programme, largely spearheaded
by volunteers, and rural development strategy, which is
in keeping with the Child Justice Bill’s requirement
that diversion programmes need to be developed for all
children in all areas of the country
Statistics 2002 - 2003
Direct services rendered to 18 874 young people, 17
807 of whom were diverted into one of the Diversion Programme
options
The majority of juvenile offenders were channeled into
the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) and Pre-Trial Community
Service (PTCS) option, with the YES Programme constituting
some 68.3% of NICRO’s diversion beneficiaries
An additional 6 219 individuals were reached through
interactive workshops, 2 934 of whom were youth at risk
and another 200 of whom were involved in volunteer training
programmes
Cultural profile: African Black - 61.3%; African Colored
- 30.9%; African White - 5.5%; African Asian - 2.3%.
Gender profile: male - 71%; female - 29%.
Offence profile: property crime - 61.6%; victimless
crime - 26.4%; crime against person - 12%.
Caseload by diversion option: Youth Empowerment Scheme
(YES) - 68.3%; Pre-Trial Community Service (PTCS) - 22.8%;
The Journey - 5.7%; Family Group Conferencing (FCG) -
1.9%; Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) - 1.3%
Copies of this Annual Report are available from the NICRO National
Office nicro@wn.apc.org
