The Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa (PCSA) became part of a union between with the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (RPCSA) to the now Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA), which was formed and constituted in 1999.

The South African Defence Force Contact Bureau was an organization of members of the former South African Defence Force (SADF). The panel of the Contact Bureau consisted of four retired chiefs of the former SADF. These are Generals MA Malan, CL Viljoen, JJ Geldenhuys and AJ Liebenberg. On 30 August 1997 the Generals organized the 'SADF Symposium and Reunion'. The intention of the symposium was, according to its conveners, 'to counteract the one-sided, negative image of the former SADF that had arisen as a result of the TRC proceedings in South Africa'.

The four aforementioned retired generals each read a paper at the symposium. A letter was drafted at the symposium and sent to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It criticizes the TRC for its apparent bias towards the African National Congress (ANC), its apparent prejudice against the former SADF and white South Africans and a history of the former SADF.

Effectively the contents of the letter are an apology of Apartheid's state-sanctioned violence against its political opponents and a further criminalization of oppositional politics and activities of the liberation movements

The papers that were delivered at the SADF Symposium and Reunion as well as the letter of the Contact Bureau are reproduced as full texts on the following website:http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/samilhis.htm

Included in this collection is a press release of a complaint lodged by the Generals to the Public Protector. Response to this complaint is documented in the 'The TRC Report of the Office of the Public Protector' (AL3062/E 3).

The Anglo American Corporation was founded by Ernest Oppenheimer in 1917 in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a gold mining company with financial backing from the American bank J.P. Morgan & Co. and other financial sources.

The Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Ltd (JCI) was founded in 1889 by the British entrepreneur Barney Barnato and became leading force in the South African mining, property and engineering sectors for over a century and a significant role player in the growth of Johannesburg as the country's economic heart. With the advent of South African democracy in 1995, the business was divided into three parts. The mining side was incorporated into a vehicle for Black Economic Empowerment under a new Chairman, Mzi Khumalo, under the name JCI Ltd. The property and investment operations became Johnnic Communications and the platinum interests were moved to Amplats. JCI Ltd was later taken over by Brett Kebble, and after allegations of fraud and mismanagement, was wound down in 2011.

In April 1919 the Helping Hand Club for Native Girls was established by a small group of women presided over by Mrs. Clara Bridgman. They purchased a small house in Fairview where there were no restrictions on African residents.

The Club intended to provide domestic Servants working in the District with accommodation as well as instruction and recreation for others. It also attempted to find suitable work for women who resided at the hostel.

In 1930 the Helping Hand committee decided to provide training in domestic service, and atraining school was built. Lessons in cooking, dressmaking, laundry and general housework were given as well as courses in English, reading, arithmatic, first aid and home nursing. After 1940 however, the hostel side of the Club developed increasingly, while the training aspect decreased.

In 1974 the Helping Hand Club changed its constitution. Accordingly, the Helping Hand trust was formed whereby 50% of the Club's funds were to be used for black educational purposes, while the remaining 50% would take the form of donations to other black welfare organisations.

In 1990, R 84 000 was donated to the Department of Bursaries and Scholarships at the Universty of Witwatersrand for black women. The Residue of the Helping Hand Trust Funds, R10, 000 was donated to the Family Planning Association of South Africa.

At the meeting on 20th February 1990 the Helping Hand Trust was finally terminated.

The South African Post Office released a special edition postage stamp in 2012, depicting the Delegation of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) to England in 1914.

The image originates from a photographic collection which is held at Historical Papers in the collection A1384f Plaatje, Solomon Tshekisho, which shows the members of the delegation being Thomas Mapikela, Doctor Walter Rubusana, Reverend John Dube, Saul Msane and Sol Plaatje.

The special edition postage stamp was issued in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the ANC, and was released with as a stamp and first-day cover on the 6 January 2012, designed by Martin Rossouw. Following its release the South African Post Office donated a sheet of the stamps and first-day cover to Historical Papers, accompanied by a text explaining in short the historical events from the founding of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in January 1912 in Bloemfontein, to the renaming of the SANNC to African National Congress (ANC) in 1923.

The Ossewa Brandwag was a movement started in South Africa by Colonel J.C. Laas about 1938. It was semi-military in its organisation and the more active group was represented by the Stormjaers. It appealed to Afrikaner sentiment, being strongly in favour of severing the tie with the British Empire and forming a Republic.

Their aim was to make Afrikaans the only official language and to have a benevolent dictatorship, rather on the lines of Nazi Germany. Not only were they anti-imperial but also anti-communist (for fear it would lead to the end of separated societies according to race) and yet at the same time anti-capitalist. During World War II the O.B. was declared illegal and as they did not offer any clear policy the movement gradually disintegrated and the Nationalists won over their members.

On the 9th July 1875, two young missionaries, Ernest Creux and Paul Berthoud founded the Swiss Mission station of Valdezia in the Northern Transvaal. It was on many occasions a hard hit and tested society. The field of action was in the unhealthy Lowveld, on the Transvaal side as well as beyond the Portuguese East African border, into Mozambique. The mission has constantly developed, not only geographically, but in the nature of its work and variety of its undertakings

Its hospitals were famous for the efficiency of their work and the practical help which they rendered to patients. There are hospitals and clinics, three of the hospitals having training schools for nurses. Female missionaries were of great importance in teaching and social work. Its schools and Normal College have done outstanding work. From the scientific standpoint, writers such as H.A. Junod, H.P. Junod, A.A. Jacques and others have contributed much to Bantu studies in all its branches, especially in linguistics and social anthropology. The church has helped to foster good race relations

There is a feeling of affinity and friendship between the Reformed Church of Switzerland, including the Mission Suisse Romande and a large section of South Africans of the same religious faith. There is a strong desire for union between the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa Presbyterian/Congregational and the Tsonga Presbyterian Church (Swiss Mission in South Africa). Among the tribes of Portuguese East Africa as well in the Northern Transvaal, in Pretoria and Johannesburg, thousands of African people have been built into the fabric of a church whose standards are unusually high. Its relations with other missionary societies have been most cordial and brotherly.

The principal task of the mission was evangelisation, but another very important function was education. Schools were opened at Shiluvane, Lemana Training Institution, near Elim, and Rikatla Bible School for the Mozambicans. Some schools had an industrial and agricultural syllabus

Church organization, Shangaan literature, the Blue Croat (temperance movement), scout and guide troops, teaching patrols who were went out from the stations Into the bush, are all part of the work of the Swiss Mission.

TRAC is a non-profit land NGO, working to support rural communities and campaigning for land reform and redistribution.

The roots of the Koinonia movement lay in the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (1979) and in the meal groups organized by Dr Nico Smith, a Dutch Reformed minister, when he went to minister to a black congregation in Mamelodi in 1982. The Koinonia movement in South Africa began in Pretoria in 1986 when Dr Nico Smith challenged a group of concerned white Christians in Pretoria to initiate a movement that would bring about reconciliation between the alienated races in Apartheid South Africa. Koinonia South Africa came into being as a result of this challenge, and the Rev. Ivor Jenkins was appointed as its first full-time national coordinator. Initial funding came from the Swiss-based organization, Christian Solidarity International.

Koinonia is a Greek word meaning "fellowship" and this was the central tenet of Koinonia's mission - to encourage "fellowship" between white and non-white Christians. The effort centered on the "meal group" concept - small, racially mixed groups would meet in each others' homes to share a meal and thus begin to break down the barriers that had grown up between the races.

Theologically, Koinonia was predicated on the belief that justice, equality and reconciliation are central tenets of Christianity, and that each individual needed to be treated with dignity and respect irrespective of race. Politically, Koinonia was dedicated to the pursuit of a non-racial, democratic dispensation for all the peoples of South Africa.

The records in this collection reflect the workings of Koinonia throughout South Africa and abroad as it sought to achieve the following aims:

On the spiritual level, to integrate believers of all races into one body

On the family level, to promote the practice of fellowship and mutual support

On the leadership level, to facilitate cooperation between religious leaders of the different race groups

On the social-structural level, to explore non-violent means of effecting reconciliation

On the ideological level, to address the problems faced by the oppressed on the basis of Christian principles