The guest speaker for the annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture, at Kingswood College, has been announced.
The 2011 lecture, to be held in the College Chapel on Friday 23 September at 10.15am, will be given by Jan Theron, from the Institute of Development and Labour Law at UCT, and General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union at the time of Aggett’s death.
The guest speaker for the annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture, at Kingswood College, has been announced.
The 2011 lecture, to be held in the College Chapel on Friday 23 September at 10.15am, will be given by Jan Theron, from the Institute of Development and Labour Law at UCT, and General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union at the time of Aggett’s death.
The lecture, in which speakers are asked to address the theme, “Standing up against injustice”, is an annual event at the school . Kingswood history teacher, Rob Charlton, initiated the series in 2006, and continues to co-ordinate it.
"Kingswood College sees this annual event as a collective memorial to all those brave men and women who laid down their lives in the fight for human rights and social justice," Charlton said.
Previous speakers have been Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry and a former Kingswood pupil, Saleem Badat, Rhodes vice-chancellor, and Peter Vale, the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics at Rhodes University and professor of humanities at the University of Johannesburg.
Last year the speaker was Dr Liz Floyd, Aggett’s life partner for many years and also in detention at the time of his death. She is a director in the Gauteng department of health and social development.
Theron combines a legal practice and a part-time academic position at the Institute of Development and Labour Law at the University of Cape Town, where he is the co-ordinator of an inter-disciplinary research group known as the Labour and Enterprise Policy Research Group (LEP). He has published widely in both academic and popular journals in South Africa and elsewhere on issues relating to labour market policy and labour regulation, as well as undertaking policy oriented research for, among others, the South African Department of Labour, the Presidency and the International Labour Organisation.
Born and educated in Cape Town, Theron graduated with a law degree from the University of Cape Town in 1972. In 1976 he became general secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union, which merged with certain other unions to become the Food and Allied Workers Union in 1986. He was its first general secretary.
Aggett attended Kingswood College from 1964 to 1970. In his matric year he was Head Prefect of Jacques House, at that stage a junior boys' house. After matriculating with a first-class pass, he studied medicine at UCT, graduating in 1976.
He did his internship at the Umtata General Hospital, in the Transkei, in 1977 and then moved on to work at Tembisa Hospital and later at Baragwanath Hospital.
During this time he became increasingly concerned with the hardships endured by black South Africans under apartheid. He abandoned his promising medical career and became involved in the black trade union movement, especially with the Transvaal branch of the Food and Canning Workers Union. Aggett supported himself by doing night shifts in the casualty ward at Baragwanath.
He was detained for “interrogation” by the security police in late 1981 and was found hanging in his cell at John Vorster Square on 5 February 1982. The words of his brother, Dr Michael Aggett, capture the poignancy of his death: “No charges were ever laid against him…. He was 28 years old.”
This year will also see the first presentation of the Neil Aggett Award to a Kingswood pupil. The award is a gift to Kingswood College from Aggett's 1970 matric classmates. The award is intended to foster a spirit of "individual service above self" in the pupils of Kingswood, and will pay tribute to the recipient's true commitment to a wider social responsibility within the school, as well as to the greater communities of Grahamstown and South Africa.
Neil Aggett's sister, Jill Burger, will present the inaugural award – a sculpture by one of South Africa's foremost sculptors, Maureen Quin – at this year's lecture. Aggett was a creative soul, his classmates argued, and the award was also a nod to the town where Aggett was educated – Grahamstown being home to the National Arts Festival.
For information about the lecture call Elmarie Retief at 046 603 6605 or email e.retief@kingswoodcollege.com
