The Winelands chapter of Mensa South Africa hosts Advocate Andrew Brown as their guest speaker at their monthly meeting tomorrow, Thursday September 21, at 7.15pm, where he will address the topic of “The South African Police Services – armed social workers or state vigilantes?”.
He will be discussing the roles that the police and security services are meant to be playing in terms of our Constitution, and the role that they are being expected to play; and how it needs to change.
Andrew practises as an advocate in Cape Town and, since 1999, has worked as a reservist sergeant in the South African Police Service, based in Mowbray.
He has been deployed to the gang unit, Nyanga Homicide, Masiphumelele, and Imizamo Yethu in Hout Hay; he is currently the police liaison officer for the child abuse team at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
In addition to his duties at the Cape Bar and as a reservist, Andrew is the author of five novels: Inyenzi, about the Rwandan genocide; and the crime novels Coldsleep Lullaby, Refuge, Solace and Devil’s Harvest.
In Street Blues he wrote about his experiences as a police reservist, and he followed this with Good Cop, Bad Cop, a personal account of the perilous and often conflicting work of a SAPS officer.
He won the 2006 Sunday Times Fiction Prize for Coldsleep Lullaby, and his work has been shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region).
If you would like to attend the meeting as a guest (there’s no charge), or would like more information about Mensa, and directions to the venue, email wnl.secretary@mensa.org.za
