Staff

The CCJ Team

Winnie Kubayi: Director

The Centre for Criminal Justice is headed by Ms. Winnie Kubayi, a remarkably dynamic young social entrepreneur. She was born in Alexander Township, Johannesburg, Gauteng. She grew up in Venda in the Limpopo Province, South Africa.

She is a person of enormous talent and energy. A lawyer by profession, her vision and insight, her dedication and hard work, her organizational and management abilities, make her an outstanding South African.

Winnie was appointed Director in 1997 when the Centre was on a brink of closure; it had no research staff and no finances. Winnie immediately gave the Centre a new vision focusing its work and research on being action and delivery orientated and raised funding to implement this vision.

Winnie is a gifted woman, and she is working hard to ensure that the constitutional rights of women and children enshrined in the Constitution are not words on paper but become daily reality in the country's criminal justice system.

Winnie is the chief guiding and driving force behind the success of the Centre for Criminal Justice community outreach programme. She is driven by her passion to protect the rights of women and children. She has demonstrated what is possible under the most adverse circumstances.

The Centre for Criminal Justice has a well constructed and conceptualized programme, it is based on a true partnership with the public sector, in all the geographical areas it operates in, has innovative ways of selecting members of a local community to run community outreach centres; provides much needed services to the poor, particularly to abused women and children, provides valuable services to the communities; and offers a model for other communities that is replicable and cost effective.

As a fitting tribute to her work, in 1999, Winnie was nominated to the Ashoka fellowship, for her work in justice and human rights. Undergoing the rigorous and multileveled selection process, Winnie was recognised as a leading innovator within her field, and joins over sixty other fellows in the Southern Africa.

Winnie lives in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal with her husband and three children.

Val Kennard: Administrative Assistant

Val Kennard is the Administrative Officer at the Centre and she has 44 years working experience. She began working at CCJ in December 1990 which makes her commitment to CCJ almost 14 years in the making. She is an important member of the CCJ team and provides all administrative back-up required by its staff, including the typing of reports, letters, arranging of conference venues. In addition, Val also assists the Outreach Support Centres administratively as well as co-ordinates the link between CCJ and the University's Human Resources Division.