Peace, Safety and Security: African Perspectives

Nirmala Devi Gopal is a professor in criminology at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban. Her repertoire (more than 55 journal articles and book chapters) of research publications conforms to the South African Higher Education and Training accredited journal guidelines. Her current niche areas in research are peace and security and, more specifically, cybersecurity. Having served as an external examiner to various Ph.D. and Master’s Students on cybercrime and cybersecurity in various South African Universities contributed to her perspective on the nature and quality of research undertaken in South Africa within this field. She commenced her career in Basic Education and believes she is well-equipped for tertiary education learners and researchers.Dasarath Chetty, a Project Executive at the EThekwini Municipality, is also currently a Visiting Professor at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Childhoods and Societies at Wuppertal University in Germany. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Management Sciences at the Durban University of Technology an International Advisory Board Member of MAHSA University, KL, Malaysia and President of the International Sociological Association‘s Research Committee on Participation, Organisational Democracy and Self-Management. Dipane Joseph Hlalele, a C2 NRF rated researcher, is a Professor in the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His current research interest draws from positive and community psychology as well as education and he therefore advocates for helpful, hopeful and respectful research. He is currently Ethics Chair: Human and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee at UKZN.Gert Kruger, is currently a Research Professor in the School of Health Sciences at UKZN. His PhD lineage is traced back to Rudolf Criegee (Wutzburg) via Johan Dekker (Karlsruhe). The Dekkers introduced cage chemistry to South Africa, and Kruger actively pursues the synthesis, computational chemistry, and biotesting of cage compounds in the Catalysis and Peptide Research Unit at UKZN.