Dr Fikile Vilakazi

Dr Fikile Vilakazi is a former Executive Director (2007 – 2012) of the Coalition of African Lesbians, a radical feminist organization in Africa that is based in South Africa to champion a collective of African lesbian women feminists. She currently serves as a board member of the Advice Desk for the Abused, an organization that works to defend survivors of gender based violence in Durban and a member of the Durban Feminist Shayisfuba Collective in South Africa. She has been involved in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [LGBTI] activism; feminist activism and gender based violence activism in Johannesburg, South Africa, Africa and Internationally since the year 2004. Prior to that she was involved in student, youth, women and gender politics, social and public policies in South Africa with specific focus on leadership, youth and sex work, adolescent sexuality, community development and women organising between the years 1993 – 2004. She is currently an academic and an intellectual activist working at the School of Social Sciences within the department of Political Science and Public Policy lecturing in both disciplines. She continues her activism through a lens of corporate social responsibility, community mobilization, feminist organising and intellectual activism. She is a former board member of the Advice Desk for the Abused in Durban, a former board member for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), current board member for the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), a current board member for the Global Interfaith Network (GIN) and a current board member for the 1in9 Campaign in South Africa.