Page 67 - SAMRC AnnualReport 2025-26

P E R FOR M A NC E I N FOR M A T I ON

Violence, Injury and Social
Asymmetries Research Unit

UNIT DIRECTOR:
Prof. Ashley van Niekerk
vnieka4@unisa.ac.za

Overview of the Research Unit › strengthen the use, reach, and policy influence
of evidence for prevention, containment, and
The Violence, Injury and Social Asymmetries
Research Unit (VISARU) is an SAMRC/UNISA advocacy.
Extramural Unit at the Unisa Institute for Social The Unit is organised into two complementary strands:
and Health Sciences. It conducts multi- and
trans-disciplinary research on the complex socio- Strand I: Injury Information Systems
structural determinants of violence and injury, with and Injury Studies
a strong emphasis on prevention.
This strand focuses on developing and strengthening
Violence and injury represent a major public injury surveillance systems, data platforms, and
health and development challenge in South Africa, analytical tools to support evidence generation on
contributing to more than 50 000 deaths annually. injury prevalence, trends, and causality. Key progress
The burden includes rising homicide rates, high includes cleaning, validation, and expansion of
levels of gender-based violence, widespread provincial and sentinel-site datasets, as well as the
road traffic crashes resulting in severe injury, and development of digital platforms such as the Injury
persistent fire- and burn-related incidents. These Mortality Surveillance System and the Community
outcomes disproportionately affect vulnerable Safety and Peace Index mobile application. These
population groups, with marked variation by age, systems are being enhanced with improved
gender, and socio-economic status. functionality, offline capability, and user interface
refinements.
Increasingly, both global and national evidence
highlights the role of structural drivers such as
poverty and inequality, energy insecurity, gender
inequality and toxic masculinities, and historical
patterns of community marginalisation. VISARU’s
overarching aim is to generate empirical evidence
on these determinants, their impact on vulnerable
populations, and their preventability.

Key Milestones and Achievements

VISARU’s core objectives are to:
› conduct trans-disciplinary research on violence and
injury, with emphasis on structural determinants;
› implement demonstration and prevention studies
that inform contextually relevant interventions;
UNISA Research and Innovation week.
› develop innovations and technologies to support
prevention research and practice; and

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