Kevin Woods

The publishers 30° South will be using the MTN Sciencentre to launch their new autobiography: ''The Kevin Woods Story: In the Shadow of Mugabe's Gallows''. Woods will launch his memoir of life (and imprisonment) as a double agent at our Ericcson auditorium on Thursday 15th November, 2007, from 18:30-20:00

“I have lost so many years of my life that my future is now behind me,” says Kevin Woods. He was a double agent for the South African apartheid government under PW Botha as well as for Robert Mugabe's Central Intelligence Organization in the 80s before being sentenced to death on 18th December 1988.

''They don’t use the words, “You are sentenced to death” in Zimbabwe,'' Woods says. ''The judge just said, “You are convicted of murder with constructive intent for which there is only one sentence.” Then, he just stood up and walked out. I was alone in court that day.''

He was incarcerated in the notorious Chikurubi maximum security prison in Harare, Zimbabwe for two decades. He spent five years naked on death row.

''I was locked up naked in Chikurubi’s death row for five years, alone and in a cell twenty-three hours of every day. I could not see if it was day or night and I was not allowed into the sunlight in the exercise yard. During my exercise time I would stand and gaze down the corridor leading to the exercise yard with such a profound longing to feel the sun’s warmth on my naked body that I’d think sometimes my heart would squeeze itself shut with heartache.''

Nelson Mandela asked ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe for Woods freedom in the 90s but this fell on deaf ears.

''It was close, so close to despair so many times. I made a rope out of shredded blanket, but somehow I endured, often just till the next day. “Just till tomorrow, Woodsie,” I’d tell myself. “Just till tomorrow.”

Finally, a year ago, he received a presidential pardon. A friend handed him a cell phone. ''“What do I do with this?” I asked. He showed me how to switch it on and the rest of that day dissolved into phone call after phone call, starting with my children, whom I hadn’t spoken to for nearly two decades.''

For more information, contact Jane Lewis on 011 673 2218 or email jane@30degreessouth.co.za. The website is www.30degreessouth.co.za