Topic: Civil Society Internationalism – from Lindela to Gaza to Washington
Speakers: Giyani Dube, Lubna Nadvi and Kate Griffiths, plus songs by
Timothy Rukombo
Date: Thursday, 22 January 2009
Time: 5-7pm
Venue: Howard College Theatre, UKZN Howard College Campus

The Lindela detention camp on the West Rand – the topic of Giyani Dube’s
book Road to Lindela – is a notorious site, one which attracted 500
protesters in December demanding a shut-down. A decade ago, the Human
Rights Commission found that “employees of the private Dyambu Trust
(which runs Lindela) extort money from detainees under a wide variety of
circumstances, and SA’s xenophobic immigration policies contribute to
the brutality regional citizens face. The ANC Women’s League is a
co-owner/operator of Lindela. Many suspicious deaths have occurred
there, giving Lindela the reputation of South Africa’s Guantanamo Bay
torture camp – a site Barack Obama promised he would quickly shut down
on coming to power as the US president. Obama also once supported the
Palestinian cause, but has been silent on the Israeli massacres in the
Gaza Strip since late December. However, civil society has not been
quiet or civil, with increasingly militant protests attracting millions
of people, including Cape Town where 15 000 marched recently. In Durban
the Israeli ambassador’s visit to a theatre festival last week prompted
calls for a cultural, academic and economic boycott, one we need to
consider as a means of intensifying pressure against future massacres,
even if a cease-fire has temporarily halted the aggression. More
generally, the rise of Obama reflects both hope for non-racialism but
also the danger of renewed US neoliberalism and imperialism, in view of
the advisors he’s chosen, the giveaways to Wall Street now underway, and
his silence on Gaza. All of these topics are up for analysis and debate
at the Wolpe Lecture panel on 22 January.

Giyani Dube is a Zimbabwean exile active in the National Constitutional
Assembly, Movement for Democratic Change, and Johannesburg Central
Methodist Church Soup Kitchen. In 2007 he became director of the ‘Road
to Lindela’ Project, and edited the book by the same name. He is
secretary general of the Creative Writers and Arts Workshop in
Johannesburg, and a journalism student at the University of the
Witwatersrand.

Lubna Nadvi teaches Political Science and International Relations in the
School of Politics at UKZN. She is also a community activist and is a
member of the Durban based Peoples Social Movement, Social Movements
Indaba (KZN) and the Education Officer for the Palestine Support
Committee (Durban). Her work in the communities is primarily concerned
with highlighting the plight of low income families, living in council
flats and shack settlements, who are struggling with issues such as
evictions, lights and water cutoffs, shack fires, lack of sanitation,
HIV Aids and Gender based violence. She has also co-ordinated anti-war
rallies and marches and is an active member of the national and
international Anti-war Coalition. She currently serves as the deputy
chairperson of the Advice Desk for the Abused. She is also a frequent
commentator in the print and electronic media on current affairs. She
served as the national Secretary General of the South African
Association of Political Studies from 2001 – 2004, and currently serves
on its Council. She has recently been a recipient of a Human Rights
Award, from the Durban branch of Amnesty International for contributions
to Women’s Rights, and was listed in the Mail and Guardian’s list of
South African women achievers. As an academic, she researches and
publishes in the area of International Relations, Middle East and
African Politics, Political Islam, HIV Aids, Gender / Feminist Studies
and Social Movements, and recently completed doctoral work in the field
of Political Islam, focusing on South Africa as a case study.

Kate Griffiths, a US citizen, is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at
City University of New York and an alternate member of the National
Committee of Solidarity in New York City. Solidarity is a revolutionary,
socialist, feminist, antiracist organization working toward rebuilding
the independent organization of civil society in the US. Kate is a labor
activist and writer based in Brooklyn, NY.

Timothy Rukombo is a Zimbabwean refugee resident in Durban, and a leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in South Africa. Border Jumper is his first CD.

Background information:

ROAD TO LINDELA
The Zimbabwean 10 December 2008

A group of Zimbabwean writers based in South Africa set up ‘The creative
writers and arts workshop’ and from it has emerged a book that documents
the truth of the Zimbabwean crisis, Road to Lindela.
Ike Dube, Gift Kavuno and project director Giyani Dube combined their
talents to sketch a background to the Zimbabwean crisis, covering life
in Zimbabwe today, conditions in Zimbabwe’s now notoriously filthy and
inhumane prisons, the political situation and the collapse of the
economy. The growing flood of Zimbabweans fleeing the violence and
economic implosion north of the Limpopo has placed significant pressure
on South Africa and the SA Department of Home Affairs has responded in
ways which the authors say violates their rights according to the South
African constitution. The section on the Lindela Detention Centre at
Krugersdorp is sub-titled The place where unwanted people wait and
tells of the brutal conditions under which illegal immigrants from
countries across Africa are detained. Road to Lindela is available in
all good South African bookstores.