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Authority record
Corporate body

Department of Education (DoE)

  • Corporate body
  • 20th century

By the end of white minority rule in 1994 South Africa and its ten independent homelands had eighteen departments of education. Four of these were national, four more were provincial and ten were homeland departments. After black majority rule came about in 1994 a new, single, national department was established, and it was named Department of Education (DoE). The three former national departments and the homeland departments were ipso facto abolished. In December 1994, the four provinces were altered. Two were renamed but retained their boundaries, and the other two were split into seven new provinces. Each province duly established its own department of education.

Detainees Parent Support Committee (DPSC)

  • Corporate body
  • 1980s

This organisation was formed as a multi-racial group of parents in support of their children who were kept in detention, often without trial. The DPSC operated on national level under extreme conditions of State repression, such as banning orders and detentions. Although the DPSC did not operate in isolation, the sheer numbers of those who were detained was overwhelming. Some of the earlier material of the organisation appears to have been lost in the Khotso house bombing in 1988, where the DPSC offices were located.

Ecumenical Monitoring Programme in South Africa (EMPSA)

  • Corporate body

The EMPSA head office in Johannesburg closed its doors shortly after the 1994 General Elections (1994/27 April). The programme was launched in September 1992. International monitors working in successive teams monitored events up to and including the 1994 General elections

Sketch of the Ecumenical Monitoring

Programme in South Africa:

EMPSA was established as a result of a call by the South African Churches - the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) to the international church community to send teams of monitors to address the question of violence.

The structure, policy and vision of the programme was agreed at a meeting with EMPSA's international partners in Geneva in August 1992. EMPSA was established with a three-fold mandate: to monitor violence, the political transitional process and elections

A group of eminent international church leaders, the Ecumenical Eminent Persons

Group (EEPG), launched the programme in September 1992.

The programme's international coordination was provided by the World Council of Churches in Geneva, in conjunction with the Vatican's Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace. Recruitment, screening and initial selection of monitors proposed from countries all over the world was done in consultation with the EMPSA national office.

Programme coordination within South Africa was done from the Johannesburg head office, which had both national and international staff, and was responsible to a National Coordinating Committee representing participating churches and church agencies in the regions, the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and national independent monitoring organisations

Participants in the EMPSA programme developed working structures in their own countries which represented interested church denominations and relevant non- governmental organisations. These committees/forums undertook a more systematic approach to recruiting, screening, selecting and proposing monitors, raising funds to cover fares, allowances, insurances etc., and lobbying and information work with returned monitors. More recent participating countries tended to have a weaker infrastructure in this regard and operated on the basis of a single church, organisation or even individual.

EMPSA monitors, deployed in successive teams to various priority areas, engaged in a wide range of activities, from monitoring marches and rallies to facilitating meetings between groups to resolve conflicts, to intervening with police and government officials. Victims of violence were visited and contact was established with the police, all the main political and community players, peace committees, local churches and businesses. EMPSA was at an advantage because it worked closely with church networks as well as non-governmental organisations. Monitors did experience problems with the length of their stay (approximately six weeks). They needed time to familiarise themselves with the situation in which they found themselves. They also needed to follow up on cases. However a good handover between successive teams and a growing network of local contacts was able to sustain a level of continuity.

Monitors worked under difficult conditions and frequently found themselves in dangerous situations. In one particular incident, EMPSA monitors Joyce Cashmore and Pieter van Reenen were detained by Bophuthatswana police sparking a local and international outcry. It is generally agreed that the presence of EMPSA monitors together with other monitoring structures contributed to a relatively peaceful electoral process

Egoli Heritage Foundation

  • Corporate body
  • 1959-

The Egoli Heritage Foundation was formed as a result of merger of three iconic Johannesburg Heritage Organizations: The Johannesburg Branch of the Simon van der Stel Association (now the Heritage Association of South Africa), The Johannesburg Historical Foundation and The Sandton Historical Society. The Foundation is a founder member of the Heritage Register. Its predecessor, The Simon van der Stel Foundation was founded in 1959 with the aim of cultivation an appreciation for our history and especially our built environment. The Foundation was named after Simon van der Stel, Governor at the Cape (1679-1699). He was the first South African to promulgate conservation legislation. The Foundation was a registered non-profit making company, governed by a National Council representing the members of the organization. Its main purpose was to conserve the heritage by encouraging the public and private sector to restore old buildings, sites and objects. It also gives advice on restoration. Simon van der Stel Foundation had branches countrywide. It was the largest and oldest non-governmental (NGO) organization involved in heritage conservation. The Foundation is known today as Heritage South Africa and operates as non-profit section 21 company with many affiliated branches. The Egoli Heritage Foundation (EFT) established later, in the 1980s, is the affiliated body based in Johannesburg. It is a voluntarily organization involved in creating awareness of the importance of conserving our heritage. It's members are taking steps to protect buildings in danger of demolition due to neglect, or ignorance of the law. The Egoli Heritage Foundation runs many projects in order to save our heritage buildings. One of them is the raising of plaques on historical structures.

Federation of Covenant People

  • Corporate body
  • 20th century

The Federation of Covenant People is a fully autonomous, non-profit organisation, which affairs are controlled by a Board of Management. It is dedicated to propagate the truth according to the eternal word of God. The purpose of the Federation is to teach the need to obey the law of the Lord, to do research into biblical and other sources, and to publish the results of this research.

Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU)

  • Corporate body

The formation of FOSATU was part of the fight to organise workers in South Africa into independent, non-racial trade unions. The first effective trade union organising black workers was formed in 1917 and was followed by the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Workers Union) in 1919. The 1950s saw the emergence of SACTU (South African Congress of Trade Unions) and the upsurge of political and worker' organisation. Slate repression led to the 1960s being a low point of worker organisation.

The 1970s were a time of great challenge for the labour movement in South Africa. Workers were experiencing growing hardships and poverty due to unemployment and inflation and as a consequence worker militancy was rapidly on the rise. As a result of the Wiehahn Commission new industrial legislation was being prepared which would bring important changes in industrial relations and worker organisations were becoming increasingly important in politics and the economy. In the face of growing opposition from the State, from employers and from the established unions (i.e. racist white unions and TUCSA) the need for greater unity was clear and new trade union bodies began to emerge countrywide.

Exploratory talks on a united Labour federation were initiated by the National Union of Motor Assembly and Rubber Workers of South Africa (NUMARWOSA) in early 1977. These talks lead to the formation of a Feasibility Committee. Participants in this committee were the four affiliates of the Trade Union Advisory and Co-ordinating Council (TUACC), NUMARWOSA, the United Automobile Workers (UAW), and three unions that broke from the Transvaal Consultative Committee of Black Trade Unions. FOSATU emerged two years later as a result.

It was a basic commitment to worker participation, opposition to racism and the desire to pool limited resources and skills that brought unions together in FOSATU. The inaugural congress of FOSATU was held in April 1979 at Hammanskraal near Pretoria. The 150 delegates elected UAW'S John Mike as President and TUACC's Alec Erwin as General Secretary. There were twelve affiliates present, three registered and nine unregistered, claiming a membership of 45 000. FOSATU became the first federation of predominantly unregistered trade unions to operate openly in South Africa since the suppression of SACTU in the 1960s

FOSATU's main objective was to build a strong national, non-racial, independent, worker controlled labour movement firmly located in the factories with strong shop-floor structures. It also committed itself to an ongoing worker education programme and to decent standards of living and fair working conditions. It did not align itself with any party political organisation and opposed attempts by such organisations to control FOSATU or its affiliates. It spent most of its energy on organising, on negotiating recognition agreements with management, and on bargaining over wages and working conditions. This cautious policy on union involvement in political activities was rooted within the framework of state repression against unions after the 1973 Durban strikes and the 1976 Soweto uprising.

The highest policy making body was the National Congress. When the National Congress was not meeting management of the Federation was vested in the Central Committee. Between meetings of the Central Committee the Executive Committee carried out the day to day administration of the Federation. Regional Councils were established to encourage unions to work together on the ground and affiliate branches were represented on it. FOSATU also encouraged affiliates to set up local offices of their unions to facilitate closer liaison between the unions

The major criticism against FOSATU was that its leadership was elite and that decisions were taken by a few officials only. Initially FOSATU unions were not necessarily democratic but as it grew and began to develop a unique uniform strategy the worker leaders began to exercise more control and the officials lost much of their power.

By 1982, with a membership of 105 000, FOSATU could no longer ignore community politics and it began to take up political issues. In 1983 the need for a wider alliance and for union unity was addressed. A Feasibility Committee was set up to discuss the formation of a new federation and in 1984 talks. Representing about 300 000 workers from the major black unions in key manufacturing, commercial and mining sectors, were held. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) emerged in November 1985 as a result of these talks.

During its existence (1979-1985) FOSATU achieved significant gains. The lot of workers had improved via increased wages, the acknowledgement of workers rights in approximately 400 factories, and better conditions on the factory-floor. Apart from these achievements FOSATU played a vital part in the growth of an independent worker culture.

Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW)

  • Corporate body

The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was formed at the "First National Conference of Women" as the inaugural conference was called, held in the Trades Hall, Johannesburg on 17 April 1954. This meeting was the culmination of months of planning, having been first suggested at a conference held in Port Elizabeth in April 1953, which was an informal meeting of women, trade unionists and African National Congress members to which Ray Alexander had been invited. She, from her home in Cape Town, assisted by Hilda Watts in Johannesburg, organised the inaugural conference. Both women had been members of the Communist Party of South Africa before its banning in 1950 and had widespread contacts amongst women of various organisations.

There were close on 150 delegates representing 230,500 women at the inaugural conference and they came from all over South Africa and from a wide cross-section of women of all colours, although mainly Black. They were drawn mostly from the Congress Alliance, made up of the African National Congress, South African Indian Congress, South African Congress of Democrats, South African Coloured Peoples Organisation and trade unions which left the Trade Union Congress of South Africa and formed the South African Congress of Trade Unions in 1955. The conference adopted a Women's Charter which included these words "We women have stood and will stand shoulder to shoulder with our menfolk in a common struggle against poverty, race and class discrimination". A draft constitution was drawn up stating the aims and objects of the Federation as being "To bring the women of South Africa together, to secure full equality of opportunity for all women, regardless of race, colour or creed; to remove social and legal and economic disabilities; to work for the protection of the women and children of our land". There was some debate as to whether the Federation should provide for individual membership but this point was settled in 1956 when the National Conference voted in favour of the Federation consisting only of affiliated organisations and no individual members.

By 1957 the following organisations had affiliated: African National Congress Women's League, South African Congress of Democrats, South African Coloured Peoples Organisation, Cape Housewives League, League of Non-European Women (Cape), Transvaal Indian Congress for Women and the Food and Canning Workers' Union. The Federation grew into a massive organisation which played its part in the national struggle for liberation and was involved in the convening of the Congress of the People by the Congress Alliance at Kliptown on June 25-26, 1955, at which the Freedom Charter was adopted. FEDSAW led the great protest against the extension of passes to African women in the 1950s, the most important event in this campaign being the mass gathering at Pretoria on 9 August 1956, thereafter observed as "Women's Day" during which 20,000 women stood in silence for 30 minutes after presenting their petition. It was on this occasion that they sang "Strijdom, you have tampered with the women/ you have struck a rock/ you have unleashed a boulder/ you will be crushed", later to be adopted as an anthem. This was followed by several demonstrations in 1957 and 1958. Other campaigns protested against Bantu education, beerhalls, Group Areas, discrimination in the nursing profession, rent increases and basic community problems. They supported the boycott of the Union Festival in 1960 and the stay away from the Republic celebrations in 1961. In 1962 they tried to draw up a Bill of Women's Rights.

From the very beginning the Federation suffered from the fact that, although as an organisation it was never banned, the leaders - Ray Alexander, Hilda Bernstein, Lilian Ngoyi, Frances Baard, Helen Joseph, Dorothy Nyembe, Amina Cachalia and Albertina Sisulu were and so were its affiliates, the African National Congress Women's League and the women's branch of the South African Congress of Democrats. The Federation was weakened by the Treason Trial of 1956-1961 and some members were detained during the state of emergency which followed Sharpeville in 1960. For a few years they struggled on under difficult circumstances but the last conference of any size took place in August 1962. Thereafter it went into rapid decline as more and more women were either banned, house-arrested or left the country. By the mid-1960s it had ceased to exist as a viable, mass-based organisation. It was never dissolved and, from time to time, the members attended historical funerals wearing their black and green uniforms.

In the early 1980s there was an attempt to revive the Federation. A 30th birthday celebration meeting was held in Mamelodi on 9 August 1984. On the 2 August 1986 a national assembly of women was held, followed a week later by a prayer service to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the march to Pretoria to protest against passes for women. Grassroots organisations were formed, including the Federation of South African Transvaal Women (FEDTRAW) in the Transvaal in December 1984, and others were formed in the Eastern and Western Cape, Natal and the Orange Free State.

In the Transvaal an interim committee was formed, an open day held on 1 June 1987 which included speakers from the old executive of FEDSAW and newsletters were published. In the Western Cape there was a regional launch in August 1987. Women demanded an end to conscription, a free equal educational system for all and the total abolition of apartheid. Further repression followed during the state of emergency and it was not until 1990 that women were free to demonstrate openly. In the intervening 30 years times had changed and many women had other loyalties than to FEDSAW. There had been a division in the ranks as not all women could subscribe to a total redistribution of wealth as demanded by some organisations. Many women preferred to join organisations like the African National Congress Women's League. As a national organisation FEDSAW has not been resurrected.

Football Association of South Africa (FASA)

  • Corporate body

The all-white South African Football Association, later known as Football Association of South Africa (FASA), was formed in 1892. SAFA was admitted to the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) in 1952. Later in 1956 SAFA changed its name to FASA, deleting the race exclusion clause from its Constitution. That and FASA's affiliation with the South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) in 1958 would allow FIFA to officially recognise FASA as the sole governing body of soccer in South Africa. But in 1960 the Confederation of African Football (CAF) expels South Africa, which was followed by FIFA's suspension of FASA in 1964. The FIFA Congress in Montreal in 1976 finally decided on the total expulsion of FASA, after South Africa had already been expelled from the Olympic movement in 1970.

FASA together with other National Football bodies in South Africa unified in 1991 to become the South African Football Association (SAFA), allowing South Africa to join FIFA and international soccer again in 1992.

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