Community-led safety: rural strategies that work

This seminar explores community-led solutions to violence and crime in rural South Africa, and how they can inform broader safety responses.

Date: 2025-07-31

Time: 10:00 to 11:30

Venue: Online via Zoom

South Africa’s safety challenges, especially in rural areas, receive widespread media coverage. While discussions about crime and violence are often polarised, there’s growing consensus that addressing these issues requires a whole-of-society approach.

But most responses still focus on security alone, despite evidence that this doesn’t yield lasting results, and examples of effective community-led solutions are rarely highlighted. Rural communities are already implementing innovative, cross-sector strategies that tackle violence and its root causes, like poverty and unemployment.

This seminar will share practical lessons from these community-led efforts and explore how they can inform broader safety and security responses.

Moderator: Senzekile Bengu, Researcher, Institute for Security Studies

Panelists:

• Sandy La Marque, Kwanalu, Chief Executive Officer
• Representative from Lima Rural Development (TBC)
• Representative from Food for Mzansi (TBC)