An Afternoon with Adv. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
A Public Conversation and Launch of the book, The Land Is Ours, at the Steve Biko Centre
Ginsberg – The Steve Biko Foundation, in partnership with Penguin Random House, will host a two hours long public conversation with Advocate Tembeka Ngukaitobi about his new book, ‘The Land Is Ours’, an enthralling account of the first black lawyers and their battles to find a just, liberal order for all people in South Africa, on Freedom Day.
Significantly, the Foundation will host Ngcukaitobi on South African Freedom Day amidst continuous public debates, dialogue and discourse around the meaning of freedom 25 years into democracy, as well as heightened public discourse and debate around land expropriation without compensation in South Africa.
Tembeka Ngukaitobi is an advocate in Johannesburg and a published Labour Law author with 14 years’ experience in the law fraternity, including experience as an Acting Judge in the Labour Court. He has BProc, LLB, LLM, from London School of Economics and Political Science. He was part of the legal team representing EFF arguing for the state capture report release at the North Gauteng High Court. He is touted as a future Chief Justice.
The details of the book launch are as follows:
DATE: Friday, 27th April 2018
TIME: 14h00 for 14h30
VENUE: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, King Williams Town
RSVP: rsvp@sbf.org.za or 043 605 6700/6736
The Land Is Ours tells the story of South Africa’s first black lawyers, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In an age of aggressive colonial expansion, land dispossession and forced labour, these men believed in a constitutional system that respected individual rights and freedoms, and they used the law as an instrument against injustice.
The book follows the lives, ideas and careers of Henry Sylvester Williams, Alfred Mangena, Richard Msimang, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Ngcubu Poswayo and George Montsioa, most of whom were also members of the ANC. It analyses the legal cases they took on, explores how they reconciled the law with the political upheavals of the day, and considers how they sustained their fidelity to the law when legal victories were undermined by politics.
The Land Is Ours shows how these lawyers developed the concept of a Bill of Rights, which is now an international norm. Amid current suspicion of the Constitution and its protection of individual rights, the book clearly demonstrates that, from the beginning, the struggle for freedom was based on the ideas of constitutionalism and the rule of law.
Copies of the book will be available on sale at the event.
About Tembeka Ngukaitobi:
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is an advocate in Johannesburg specialising in Public Law. He graduated in law at the Universities of Transkei, Rhodes and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a research associate at the University of Johannesburg and a research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand.
About the Steve Biko Foundation:
The Steve Biko Foundation is a community development organization inspired by the legacy of Bantu Stephen Biko. The Foundation was established in 1998 and is dedicated to promoting the intangible aspects of development, namely: identity, culture and values; the issues that speak to the soul of a nation.
The Foundation aims to intensify its efforts to strengthen democracy by championing dialogue, scholarship and programmes on the relationship between identity, agency, citizenship and social action.
The Foundation’s programmes focus on:
Consciousness – Who am I?
Community – Making a societal contribution; and
Core Skills – Skills development programmes for young people.
Alongside SBF’s public dialogue initiatives, interventions take place in the areas of Arts & Culture, Education, Sports & Enterprise Development. Much of this work takes place at the Steve Biko Centre in the Ginsberg Township of King William’s Town. In addition to training spaces, the Centre houses the Steve Biko Museum, Archives, Library, Conferencing facilities and a Cinema.
Contact Details
For more information about the Steve Biko Foundation contact Thando Sipuye via email: tsipuye@sbf.org.za or call 011 403 0310.
Follow the Steve Biko Foundation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BikoFoundation
Steve Biko Foundation Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheSteveBikoFoundation/
Steve Biko Centre Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SteveBikoCentreAlutaRestaurant/
Visit us on: www.sbf.org.za
