Fonds AL3080 - Noel Stott Collection

Identity area

Reference code

ZA SAHA AL3080

Title

Noel Stott Collection

Date(s)

  • 1979-1990 (Accumulation)
  • 1961-1992 (Accumulation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

5.6 linear metres (56 archival boxes)

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Noel Francis Stott matriculated from Sea Point Boys' High School, Cape Town, South Africa, in 1977. Between 1978 and 1980, he was a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with majors in Psychology and Biblical/Religious Studies. In 1981 he was awarded a Higher Diploma in Library and Information Science (HDLIS).

From 1982 to 1983, Noel was conscripted into the South African Defence Force (SADF) and was assigned to Military Intelligence (MI). During this time he secretly supplied information to the then banned African National Congress (ANC). In early 1984, he was detained in connection with the Treason Trial of Roland Hunter and Trish and Derek Hanekom for allegedly passing on sensitive information to Hunter. Due to the nature of the information at Hanekom and Hunter's disposal (regarding SADF support for Renamo), the trial was held in camera and Noel was never charged.

Between 1984 and 1986, Noel was employed by UCT in various capacities, inter- alia Social Sciences and Humanities Subject Librarian and Acting Head, Law Library. In 1985 he completed a B. Bibl. (Honours) degree.

In 1986, Noel joined an underground cell of the African National Congress being deployed to work in the 'church as a site of struggle'.

He established a library for the Order of Jesus (Jesuits) in Johannesburg in 1986, before being appointed Documentation and Research Officer for the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) in September 1986, a position he held until July 1989. In August 1989, he was appointed Co-ordinator of the Communications Department and Documentation Officer of the Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT), a position he held until February 1992.

In August 1988, at a press conference, Noel publicly refused to render further service in the SADF.

Since 1992 Noel has served in administrative and research capacities for many NGOs, including faith-based and ecumenical institutes such as:

Research Institute for Christianity in South Africa (RICSA)

Theology Exchange Programme (TEP)

Centre for South-South Relations (CSSR)

Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE)

Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG)

Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)

Noel has further served as a researcher at the University of Ulster, Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland, on the topics: "Human Rights NGOs and the Difficulties of Transition: Lessons for Civil Society in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Palestine", and ''Developing and Implementing Public Policy: A comparative understanding of the factors influencing policy development and implementation in the negotiated transitions in Northern Ireland and South Africa''.

He is now (2005) employed as a Senior Research at the Arms Management Programme of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS).

In 1997, Noel was elected onto the Co-ordination Committee of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) - a position he held until 2003.

Achievements and Awards:

Noel was one of its two African representatives to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the ICBL in December 1997.

In 1997, Noel was awarded the Friendship Medal (Agreement Number 2628) by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, "in recognition to his constant actions of political and material support with the Cuban Revolution and of condemnation to the imperialist blockade on Cuba".

In 1997, he was awarded the SANGONeT "Networker of the Year Award" for the "effective use of electronic communications in advocacy, solidarity work and in the development of a cross border civil society".

Involvement in the Mass Democratic Movement in South Africa:

Throughout his career, Noel has organised and/or participated in many conferences and courses relating to issues of international solidarity. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications.

Noel has actively served on many other community based organisations, including:

Member of the Executive Committee of The Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee (JODAC), a progressive organisation affiliated to the United Democratic Front (UDF) that worked to draw members of the white community into the struggle for a non-racial, democratic South Africa. This organisation disbanded during 1990 after the African National Congress (ANC) was unbanned.

Committee member of the National Co-ordinating Committee (UDF-NCC), an affiliation of progressive organisations (UDF) working in the white areas, including JODAC.

Member of the Executive Committee of Five Freedoms Forum (FFF), an organisation created to draw members of the white community into the struggle, but which was more broadly based in the white community than JODAC. The FFF is perhaps best known for facilitating a visit by 100 white South Africans to the then still banned African National Congress (ANC) in Lusaka in 1989.

Consultant and contributor to the Popular History Trust (PHT-Zimbabwe)

Founding member and now Trustee of the South African History Archive (SAHA).

Member and Director of WORKNET (now SANGONET) - an electronic communications system created for use by trade unions, service organisations and the alternative media in South Africa.

Chairperson of the Gauteng Branch of the Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS - Gauteng) for three years. Noel attended the first World Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba in Havana, Cuba in 1994 and led the first ever-African Brigade to Cuba in 1996. He was centrally involved in the conceptualisation and organisation of the Southern African-Cuba Solidarity Conference in 1995.

Co-ordination Committee member of the International Campaign to Ban Anti-personnel Landmines (ICBL) and founding member of the South African Campaign to Ban Landmines (SACBL).

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

A sizeable portion of the collection comprises publications issued by student organisations operating on the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Wits campuses. Noel Stott was a student at the UCT from 1978 to 1981, a period of political and social turmoil in South African society.

The Soweto students' uprising of 1976 had indelibly changed the political climate of South Africa, and students across the country were becoming increasingly militant. An ever-more desperate Apartheid regime attempted to maintain its stranglehold on the masses by invoking emergency powers, and employed its security forces to clamp down on so-called dissidents. The South African Defence Force (SADF) was embroiled in a war against the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) in what was then South West Africa (now Namibia), and was further involved in incursions into neighbouring Angola, in support of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement. "Preemptive strikes" into other frontline states were also launched by security forces against "enemies of the state". Internally, the SADF and South African Police (SAP) were deployed to maintain "order" in non-white townships; the atrocities and abuses committed by the security forces in the pursuit of this objective have been well documented elsewhere.

The SAP also targeted the so-called "liberal" South African universities, such as UCT, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), and Rhodes University. Student leaders were frequently targeted, detained, and banned, and student publications were subjected to scrutiny and banned whenever "subversive" material was published. During his student years, Noel collected a large body of the material published by student organisations at UCT, such as newspapers, leaflets, flyers, and pamphlets. This body of material is augmented by similar publications from Wits, donated by acquaintances who had been students there.

This material is significant in that the "student politics" they present highlight many of the issues of the day, such as then-president PW Botha's so-called reforms, military service (which was compulsory for white males at the time), police activity on campuses, government interference in education, the "Quota system", calls for solidarity with the masses, and so on.

The publications clearly illustrate the divisions between "moderate" student organisations and those that favoured the maintenance of the status quo and so-called "radical" organisations calling for mass action to effect change. On occasion, differences between organisations espousing these different views spilled over into violent campus clashes. Student politics on the "liberal" university campuses may not have been very "polished", but it was certainly very passionate!

Noel's involvement with organisations such as JODAC and FFF are represented in the collection. UDF newsletters and magazines, JODAC newsletters and magazines, as well as FFF publications demonstrate the efforts that were being made to draw whites into the democratic movement.

However, the bulk of the collection comprises materials collected as a result of Noel's skills as a librarian and his association with ecumenically oriented NGOs. A sizeable collection of newspapers, magazines and journals, from both Catholic and Protestant organisations within South Africa as well as abroad, combine to create a vivid picture of the vast network of organisations that were working to bring about a just and democratic South Africa (and elsewhere, such as in Namibia).

This is augmented by magazines and journal from the period that deal with more general issues, such as the economy, the arts, and the environment, to name but a few.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

This collection is open for research

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

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Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

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Description control area

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Institution identifier

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Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

20090709

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