Pretoria - The publishing of the first forensic investigation book, authored by a black South African, is good for nation-building and a right step towards redressing the wrongs of the past, says Communications Minister Faith Muthambi.
Tomorrow, history will be made when Dr Setlhomamaru Dintwe, a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa will be the first black South African to launch a forensic investigation book since the dawn of democracy. The launch will be held in Centurion, outside Pretoria.
Minister Muthambi will give a message of support at the launch of the book “Legislative Principles and Investigative Practice”, where Advocate Gerrie Nel will also be a guest speaker.
“The launch of this book is clear evidence that by 2030, we will be more conscious about the things that we have in common than our differences. The authoring of this book by a black South African is good for nation-building and it’s also a right step towards redressing the wrongs of the past.
“Information and knowledge sharing is very close to my heart, and the subject…books such as this will go a long way in empowering South Africans, more especially prosecutors and members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in our country,” she said.
Minister Muthambi said any source of information be it in a form of a book or broadcasting medium speaks to the mandate of the department.
The book
Dr Dintwe, who co-edited the book with Rudolph Zinn, said the authoring of the book was partly because of the challenges they identified as academics in the field of forensic investigations over the years.
“One of those challenges is fragmentation. We realised that the forensic investigation fraternity is very much fragmented. You will get others who are regulated by the private security regulation, while others like the government’s special investigative unit is regulated by an act of Parliament.
“We also discovered that there are private forensic investigators who were not regulated…these are private investigators who just existed outside any other known regulatory framework.
“We hope that with this book, we will be able to turn around those challenges of fragmentation and we would also know who the forensic investigators are in South Africa, as well as ensuring that we can develop the ethics which can help us in regulating the forensic investigation fraternity,” he said.
Dintwe said his book is not for people who are in forensic investigations only, but it is for general consumption.
This book informs children what to do if they have been sexually abused and informs a person, who has just experienced a house robbery, on which areas should not be touched until the police have arrived.
National Book Week
South Africa commemorates National Book Week from 7-13 September. It is an initiative of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture.
Reading statistics report that only 14% of the South Africans are active book readers, with only 5% of parents reading to their children.
National Book Week is an important initiative in encouraging the nation to value reading as a fun and pleasurable activity and to showcase how reading can easily be incorporated into one’s daily lifestyle. - SAnews.gov.za
