South African Law Firm

The Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP), now referred to as the Society, Work and Development Institute, is a research organisation, which is housed at the University of the Witwatersrand.

SWOP was established in 1983 as a post doctoral project of Professor Edward Webster as a result of researching working conditions in foundries. Having analysed the records of the Iron Moulders Society, which indicated a very high incidence of respiratory diseases caused by the dust, he came to the conclusion that the way work is organised affects the health of workers. At the time Professor Webster was approached by a group of young engineering students as to whether there could be a collaboration to analyse the technical side of work. This led to the set up of the Sociology of Work Project (SWOP), linked to the NGO, the Technical Advice Group(TAG) that the students had set up.

SWOP grew from strength to strength. In 1995 it was established as a Unit but kept the acronym. In the late 1990s research was broadened, in order to focus beyond work to look at the relationship between work and society, as well as broader issues of economic and social development. And in 2007, when the University recognised SWOP as an Institute, the name was changed to "Society, Work and Development Institute", to reflect more accurately its broader focus. Nevertheless, it was felt that, since it had become known as SWOP, it should retain this brand name and call itselves the SWOP Institute.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines was first launched in 1992 in order to help alleviate the global and regional landmine crisis. The initial signatories comprised of Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOS) such as the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), Medico International (MI) Handicap International (HI), Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and Physician for Human Rights (PHR). This initiative to ban landmines was later on taken up by most of the countries in the world including South Africa.

The South African Campaign to Ban Landmines (SACBL), launched in 1995, was part of an international movement which was committed to lobbying for a global ban of anti-personnel landmines by the year 2000. In South Africa, the SACBL was popularised by the military veterans. The call by South African military veterans followed on the heels of the Canadian sponsored conference which was held in October 1996. It strengthened world-wide government support for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. This conference ended with the adoption of the Ottawa Declaration which included a commitment to working towards the complete ban on anti-personnel landmines.

The SACBL was coordinated by the Ceasefire Campaign and participating groups included: OXFAM, the Group for Environmental Monitoring (GEM) and the Justice and Peace Unit of the Catholic Church. In an open letter addressed to President Nelson Mandela, the signatories of the SACBL welcomed the government's commitment to eliminate anti-personnel landmines. They called upon the South African Government to declare a complete ban on anti-personnel mines, that is, a ban on their production, stockpiling, sale and use.

By 1997 South Africa joined more than 39 countries that were already supporting a ban. By 2004, the International Campaign Landmines had over 1400 subscribed members. From 1992 to 2004, these countries held conferences and conducted workshops on the landmine ban.

The South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) was launched in 1959 by a small committee. At the time it supported black students that were excluded from white Universities by the Extension of Universities Act of 1959, which regulated racially and ethnically separate Universities. From these early beginnings, SACHED extended its work in distance education, and to reach those communities who were being denied basic educational access - workers, women, rural people, marginalised youth and the unemployed. In the 1970s it supported adults studying at secondary school level, especially teachers, and developed unique support programmes for tertiary level students at the University of South Africa (UNISA). From 1981 SACHED played a role in supporting mass-based organisations in their resistance to Apartheid. Educational programmes were developed with trade unions and community organisations, while SACHED's educational media aimed to build a learning culture among South Africa's youth.

Previously Christian Council of South Africa, General Missionary Conference

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 South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), today the largest teachers' union in the country was launched on the 6th of October 1990 in Johannesburg. Its launch was attended by 1500 delegates from 13 teacher organisations. The delegates present were united in the firm belief and commitment to place teachers at the forefront of policy development for an envisaged future South Africa.