Joseph Dube: A Life Of Fighting Against Arms

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · Published July 4, 2024 · Updated July 3, 2024

Top: Joseph Dube addressing a meeting of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in New York in January 2023. Centre: Dube with members of his family Bottom: Walking as a Knight of da Gama beside Archbishop Buti Tlhagale in a procession in Johannesburg’s Christ the King cathedral. Main right: Dube speaks at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York in November 2023. Photos: ICAN/Derek French; ICAN/Cornel van Heerden; supplied (2)

Joseph Dube’s mission is to rid the world of weapons, whether it be guns in the streets or nuclear arsenals held by nations. He spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa about his work, life and faith.

A confirmation tutor taught Joseph Dube about the Church’s Catholic Social Teachings and linked them to the realities of apartheid at the time. “The most important message I can remember was that justice and peace is a way of life. As Catholics, whatever we do is all about justice and peace. We are therefore called to promote the Social Teachings of the Church wherever we are,” Dube told The Southern Cross.

Joseph Dube is one of the few South African activists in the areas of small arms control and disarmament. Among the civil society organisations he has worked for over the past 25 years are Amnesty International, Gun Free South Africa and the International Action Network on Small Arms.

He is the third of six children born to the Dube family of Mhlabuyalingana, in northeastern KwaZulu-Natal. For many years his father worked in the mines of Johannesburg while his mother was a housewife.

“I was born into a Presbyterian family,” Dube said. “Because of youth activities that the Catholic Church had at the time in my area, I went along to the Mass with a friend. I found that the Catholic Church appealed to my spiritual needs, and I never looked back from there. I was in Grade 7 when I was baptised as a Catholic.”

He went on to earn a BTec degree in Youth and Child Development from the University of South Africa (UNISA). The father of three now lives in Observatory in Johannesburg, and is a parishioner of St Francis of Assisi church in Yeoville.

Joining Justice & Peace

Back in 1994, Dube was a parishioner of the Christ the King cathedral in Johannesburg, where he joined the parish’s Justice & Peace (J&P) group. This is where his interest in social justice was nurtured. In the run-up to the 1994 South African general elections he was appointed an electoral officer.

The following year he was employed as a fieldworker for Johannesburg’s Justice & Peace Commission. His duties included human rights education and the establishment of J&P groups in the parishes of Soweto and on the West Rand.

“After three years working in the Justice & Peace Commission in the archdiocese of Johannesburg, I told Sr Shelagh-Mary Waspe, who was then the commission’s coordinator, that I needed more challenges and growth. She encouraged me to look for a job within the larger social justice space,” Dube recalled.

Blacklisted by Zimbabwe

In 1998 he joined Gun Free SA as a national organiser. Five years later he joined Amnesty International, where he worked on arms control, gender-based violence and human rights.

While with Amnesty International, Dube wrote a paper calling for the arrest and prosecution of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who had been accused of countless violations of human rights, including genocide, in Darfur.

He also wrote a paper calling for the Zimbabwean government to stop its violation of human rights. “I was blacklisted by the Zimbabwean government, and advised not to visit the country as I would be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

At the end of his year-long stint with Amnesty International, he was headhunted by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), an arms control and disarmaments advocacy organisation based in London. This came with a move from South Africa to England. Dube worked for IANSA from 2005-12. “One of the key mandates we worked on was to stop the weapons trade by China to Zimbabwe. Another was our work on concluding an international arms treaty which reflected Africa’s best interests” he said.

In 2012, IANSA faced financial constraints, and thus Dube’s work was reduced to that of a consultant. In 2015, he returned to the Justice & Peace Commission of the archdiocese of Johannesburg as its head. But it was not an easy time. His plans to reshuffle and upskill the team faced resistance over a period of two years. “Eventually Archbishop Buti Tlhagale closed down the commission, and reopened it at a later stage,” Dube said.

He returned to his consultancy work on arms control and disarmament. In 2017, he was approached by the South African government to work on disarmament, especially of nuclear weapons. His work is rooted in the 1996 Pelindaba Treaty, which establishes a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968. This requires collaboration with various governments and international bodies, including the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

“I am currently involved with work on the Arms Trade Treaty dealing with conventional arms, and I am working with the government of Lesotho to implement the treaty. I am also involved in issues around Explosive Weapons In Populated Areas, promoting the campaign to stop the use of such weapons in places such as Gaza. I am also assisting in developing an Africa strategy to implement the Lusaka Road Map on Silencing the Guns by 2030,” Dube said.

Work in the parish

Dube is an active member of Yeoville’s St Francis of Assisi parish. He is a member of the Knights of da Gama, and is a past grand knight. He also works with the St Vincent de Paul Society to run the parish soup kitchen.

“I also work with the men in my parish to respond to its needs. This year I have introduced the ideas to them of building a borehole and improving our current solar lighting at the parish,” he said.

When he is not working or busy with church activities, Dube spends quality time with his family. He is a proud soccer dad who actively takes part in his son’s love for the sport. He previously served his son’s U-15 Highlands Park FC team as a manager. Dube is also the current chairperson of the Observatory Community Policing Forum. He is an avid gardener, and enjoys cleaning his yard.

All of these activities need a solid source of mental nourishment. For Dube that is his daily prayer routine. “Every morning I wake up at 5:30 to pray the rosary for 30 minutes. At 6:00 I listen to the daily devotion by Fr Eustace Siame SDB. I repeat the same process in the evening, but only for 30 minutes. Lastly I pray when I get into bed by simply saying, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.’ This is the prayer that our Lord Jesus prayed on the cross,” Dube explained.

Moreover, he added, “as I am a member of the Knights of da Gama, we have our First Fridays Mass and our monthly rosary prayers.”

‘More needs to be done’

His work and faith overlap. The Catholic Church has been involved in arms control and disarmament advocacy through the Holy See, but Dube feels that more work can be done on this front. “It would be good if the Holy See’s permanent representative to the UN would reach out to the faithful around the world at national and diocesan levels to encourage them to be involved and to participate in the UN process” on arms control and disarmament,” Dube said.

To this end, he feels that it is important to utilise the existing channels of education within the Church to teach young people about the Catholic Social Teachings. “In this way they will gain a sense of social responsibility. I encourage young people to get involved in Justice & Peace matters at parish level. They should organise themselves and host workshops with invited speakers to talk about the Social Teachings of the Church,” Dube suggested.

“There are very few people, and especially among young people, working on arms control and disarmament in South Africa. It would be great to have them take up the mission and carry the baton forward.”

Published in the May 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine