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The Minister of Correctional Services, Mr Ben Skosana, leaves for the United States today to attend the 2004 Winter Conference of the American Correctional Association (ACA) that will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana from Saturday, 10 January 2004.

The Minister, who is the Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the ACA, is accompanied by the Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Linda Mti, and other senior officials of the department.

The conference will also be addressed by the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Persons, Mr Kweisi Mfume.

Minister Skosana will have the opportunity to interact with professionals in corrections from all over the world to discuss several issues of concern including the assessment of threats against correctional personnel and achieving common goals through collaboration.

From New Orleans, Minister Skosana will proceed to Howard University in Washington DC where he has been invited to address a meeting organised by the Howard University - South Africa Project and the Centre for Drug Abuse Research.

The meeting will identify potential areas of continued cooperation between Howard University and Correctional Services in South Africa and look into strategies for supporting the continuation of these initiatives. The latter meeting is a following up to a meeting on "Substance Abuse, Crime, Violence and HIV/AIDS as Consequences of Poverty" that was held in Cape Town in 2000.

Enquires:
Tsoeu Ntsane
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Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
8 January 2004

Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)