cultivating solidarity at the site of struggle
Peace Catalyst International is proud to have Iziko Lamaqabane as an official peacebuilding partner. Iziko Lamaqabane is a South African organization committed to racial and systemic justice, decolonization, and inclusive community development.
Why This Partnership Matters
Peace Catalyst International partners with Iziko Lamaqabane because of a strong alignment with their vision, theology, and practice. Both organizations are committed to peacebuilding that confronts systemic injustice, challenges colonial legacies, and cultivates faith expressed through liberative solidarity.
Iziko brings profound contextual wisdom from South Africa — rooted in Black liberation theology, Anabaptist heritage, and accompaniment at the site of struggle.
PCI brings a global network of peacebuilders and a platform for cross-contextual learning and solidarity across communities shaped by violence and inequality.
Together, we seek to amplify marginalized voices, equip faith communities for justice-centered peacemaking, and foster relationships that move beyond charity toward mutual transformation.
PCI serves as a U.S.-based solidarity partner, helping connect supporters to Iziko’s work while honoring their leadership, autonomy, and local vision.
Iziko’s Approach to Peacebuilding
“Iziko Lamaqabane" means “the gathering space of comradeship.”
As a faith informed support centre for peace and justice practitioners, it is our conviction that the more we can walk together, sharing stories, friendship and knowledgies, the more our wisdom, longevity and capacity to disrupt violence and oppression will grow.
Our practices at Iziko emerge from this desire to serve practitioners by exchanging and practicing our ‘Four R’s’ together: research, resource, remember, and retreat.
The Iziko Team
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Buyisiwe Putu is a Black South African accountant by profession and founder of Iziko Lamaqabane, where she serves as Director of Afro Feminist-Womanist Solidarity and Operations Manager. Her work bridges financial expertise, theological reflection, and grassroots organising to advance justice-centred community development.
Working at the intersection of faith, land, gender, and economic dignity, she collaborates with women in township and rural contexts to strengthen agriculture-for-liberation initiatives, leadership formation, and sustainable livelihoods. She intentionally connects grassroots women's lived knowledge with academic and theological discourse, ensuring that community wisdom informs institutional practice.
She is currently pursuing further academic formation in theological ethics, deepening her engagement with questions of justice, dignity, and faith-rooted social transformation. Her leadership integrates financial accountability, contextual theology, and African feminist praxis to ensure that development initiatives are economically sound, strategically managed, and socially transformative.
Through Iziko Lamaqabane’s partnership with PCI Peace Catalyst International, she seeks to expand sustainable funding pathways that strengthen grassroots women’s networks and deepen peacebuilding grounded in solidarity and long-term impact.
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Steve Schallert is a peacebuilder, organiser, educator and practitioner of Kingian-Nonviolent Conflict Transformation living and practicing in Cape Town, South Africa. He serves as the Director of International Solidarity with Iziko Lamaqabane.
Mentored by the Catholic Worker Movement and Plowshares tradition, for the past two decades Steve has helped develop and facilitate dozens of conflict transformation schools and projects in diverse conflict and post-conflict contexts such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, and South Africa. His current passions centre on supporting and developing young peace and justice practitioners who are engaged in healing the walls of hostility within their communities.
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Nkosi Gola is an activist and community organiser, fascinated with, and closely study the black church’s expression on justice. He is particularly interested in how this institution, the church, serves as a hub of black resistance, both covertly and overtly.
Nkosi is working at Iziko Lamaqabane as Director of Urban African Solidarity, Black Church, Black Theology Engagement, and Programs Manager.
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Mziwandile (Mzi) Nkutha, Director of Iziko Lamaqabane - a faith-based organisation rooted in the
Anabaptist tradition, as well as exploring the praxis of solidarity at the site of struggle. Iziko Lamaqabane
seek to collaborate with different churches, community organisations and individuals interested
in fostering the work of justice and peace in South Africa.
I grew up in Soweto and still carry significant Kasi (township) culture with me, township life is an ongoing
hybrid and croele (re)production of the political and cultural expression or forms of creolization. It is a gift
that assist me to both understand our world but more so, to contribute in the making and reshaping of the
world. My social interests includes learning from different cultural experiences, including the love of
(Afro)jazz, good food and good African coffees. I live in Alberton, south of Johannesburg with my spouse,
Lydia Nani Nkutha and daughter, Uluthando Nkutha.
Programs of Solidarity - Overview of pilgrimages, liberation learning, and exchange programs.
E.g. Iziko Lamaqabane cultivates relational solidarity among peace and justice practitioners through pilgrimages, retreats, online networks, and thematic gatherings. Each program creates space for accompaniment, critical reflection, spiritual grounding, and collective learning at the site of struggle — strengthening the wisdom, resilience, and capacity of those working for justice across South Africa and beyond.
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Your gift supports Iziko’s work of cultivating solidarity at the site of struggle — accompanying peace and justice practitioners through pilgrimages, retreats, gatherings, and global networks.
Peace Catalyst International serves as a U.S.-based solidarity partner. Donations made through this page are designated for Iziko’s programs and transferred in alignment with our partnership agreements and financial accountability standards. PCI provides administrative infrastructure while honoring Iziko’s leadership and local vision.
By giving, you participate in a relationship of global solidarity rooted in justice and mutual transformation.
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