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.

The society was formed in Johannesburg in 1923 with the object of forming a nucleus for social intercourse for 'natives' employed on the Witwatersrand. Motto of the society was Stronger in body, mind, spirit and character. Provided recreational, educational and leisure time activities for Black men working in Johannesburg and the reef and also served as a meeting place for Non-White societies and organizations. On 31 December 1971 the centres premises at 3a Eloff Street were closed by the Johannesburg City Council in accordance with the Group Areas Act.

The Executive Committee submitted an appeal through the council to the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development for assistance in establishing of new centre in Soweto but there was no outcome to the appeal.

In 1976 the premises were renovated and were let to the West Rand Areas Bantu Administration Board.

Activities of centre and people of note who supported the centre:

Sports and athletics: Ballinger, W.G.

Educational classes: Bennett, P.J.

First Aid: Bridgman, F.B.

Gamma Sigma debating clicks: Hoernle, R.F.A

Music tuition and eisteddfords: Jones, J.D. Rheinallt

Dramatic society: Phillips, Ray E.

Films: Pim, J. Howard

Guest evenings: Pin, J. Montague

Library-First provided by Transvaal: Rathebe, J.R.

Carnegie Grant and from 1940 by the: Taberer, H.M

Johannesburg Public Library: Taylor, Dexter J., Webber, Walter

"Zebediela" derives from a corruption of the name given to Mamukebe, an Ndebele chief, whose diplomatic skills in the mid-19th century Northern Transvaal earned him the appellation "Mabediela" - the one who pacifies

In the Sekukuni War of 1852 waged by the South African Republic against the Pedi, Zebediela supplied a contingent of four hundred auxiliaries in addition to furnishing supplies of corn and cattle. In return for this show of loyalty, Zebediela's clan were exempted from taxation for a while, and in 1885, a location was beaconed off by the Z.A.R. for them.

In 1917 a massive tract of land adjacent to Zebediela's location was purchased by African Realty Trust, a company incarnate as I. W. Schlesinger; Schlesinger (1871-1949): financier, entrepreneur, founder of what was to become the South African Censorship Board, one-time employer of A. W. G. Champion and a benefactor of the University of the Witwatersrand. Originally from the Bowery in New York, Schlesinger came to South Africa in 1902 as an extremely successful Insurance broker.

The following year he launched the African Realty Trust and with the proceeds of land sales in Orange Grove, Killarney, Parkhurst. and Marlboro, he established the African Life Assurance Society in 1904. By 1905 he had bought out J. B. Robinson's South African Bank, developing it into the Colonial Banking and Trust Company to which in 1911 was added the African Guarantee and Indemnity Company. With a base secure in banking, property and finance, Schlesinger began to diversify his business interests. In the entertainment field, he set up African Consolidated Theatres and African Film Productions Limited, the latter producing the weekly 'African Mirror' - the world's second oldest newsreel. The South African Broadcasting Corporation itself derives from a chain of radio stations sponsored by Schlesinger in the mid-1920s. Afamal, to name another Schlesinger enterprise, claimed for many year's to he the largest advertising agency outside Britain and the U.S.A.

One of Schlesinger's more ambitious schemes was the establishment of Zebediela Citrus Estate. Purchased in 1917, development of the estate began immediately with bush-clearing projects, dam building and soil preparation; the first trees were planted in 1918 and within a decade, nine square miles of orange trees had been planted, the fruit of which was already entering the export market.

Schlesinger's agents were mandated to invite investors locally and overseas to finance the scheme by purchasing 5-acre stands and leaving the company to take responsibility and a commission for producing the crop. Various marketing techniques were used, with U U. Robins-Browne, Schlesinger's man in Singapore, apparently appealing to the colonial mentality in his claim that 'The native of South Africa is a very fine specimen of a servant., being, big, healthy and strong. They cost about: ú3 per month. '

The three thousand black workers at Zebediela were, however, paid considerably less. In 1879 the Native Commissioner for the district reported that '[Zebediela's] people are rich and well-to-do - as none of his young men will work elsewhere than at the 'Diamond fields' - where they 'earn high wages'.

However, by the early twentieth century, much had changed. The diamond fields were no longer such an attractive option, and the Estate's management reported that the supply of labour on the estate was plentiful, and prepared to accept a wage of roughly 25/- per month, excluding provisions. In the 1930s however, the South African economy moved from a period of depression to one of rapid development, with the demand and competition for labour increasing accordingly as migrants sought: the more favourable labour markets of the Witwatersrand. The shortage of labour at Zebediela became acute.

The management of Zebediela was now obliged to recruit labour further afield through the established recruiting agencies operating from Messina, the Mozambican border, and across the Limpopo. Thus from the mid-1930s, the bulk of Zebediela's labour was drawn from Nyasaland, Portuguese East Africa and Northern Rhodesia. This provided no long term solution to the labour shortage, as desertion rates were high; in the opinion of A. R. van Blerk, Estate Secretary, 'The northern native, after his rough trek through the African jungle, could not settle to steady rural routine and was an easy prey to the lures of the not too scrupulous operators in the labour racket of some 30, 000 extra-Union Africans recruited, at the rate of 2300 n year over 1: 1 years, only 40% remained to serve their contracted time'. (3)

This high rate of desertion was, however, not an unreasonable response to the onerous work, low wages and poor living conditions which obtained at the estate. Indeed, a managerial report recorded the opinion of a Department of Native Affairs Representative in the late 1930s who 'condemned our old compounds as uncomfortable, insanitary and likely to become a disgrace if ever we had a serious outbreak of disease. Against this it was agreed that the raw native labourer is naturally dirty and prefers the squalor of a wattle and daub hut to a brick and iron-roofed building'.

Fortunately this attitude did not persist. In the 1940s, much effort was expended in devising living conditions compatible with labour stabilisation and economic rationality. Particularly valuable was the input of P. J. Quin, Director of the estate from 1936 to 1965, an outspoken opponent of 'the de-Africanising of the African', and a person highly regarded by the Nationalist government. On the basis of the findings of Quin's sociological study of the Bapedi, the accommodation and diet of Black workers on the estate were improved considerably.

It has been argued that Zebediela constituted something of a prototype for rural industry in South Africa. Indeed, its receptivity to industrial and mechanical advances - facilitated by the immense financial strength of the Schlesinger Organisation - was exceptional.

For many years the estate relied on white female seasonal labour, employed as packers and graders during the annual packing season; drawn largely from the local community these women, aged between 16 and 45, were accommodated within the benevolent confines of a hostel in which the virtues of thrift, propriety and Christianity were encouraged. It is interesting to note that recruiting officers of the Union Defence Force during the Second World War were advised that their cause was unlikely to be met with enthusiasm at Zebediela, as over 80% of the women did not support the government's stance vis-à-vis the war.

In the mid 1950s, economic rationality dictated that a transition be made from white to black seasonal female labour, a development which contradicted earlier racist assertions that black women were incompetent in that capacity. Nonetheless, the transition coincided with a major survey of labour relations and arrangements conducted by a consultancy, Bedaux Company of Africa, which resulted in the adoption of a sophisticated labour programme based on the principles of Taylorism.

Letaba Estates was an enterprise similar to Zebediela, although run on a smaller scale. Originally intended a settlement scheme for ex-servicemen after World War I, the incidence of malaria and snakes and the estate's general isolation apparently dissuaded immigrants from settling there permanently. Schlesinger's involvement in the estate in this period, the 1920s, is unclear; the estate was laid out by United Fruit and Citrus Farms Ltd, a company owned by the Investment Corporation of Africa Ltd, after the former owners, Messrs Judas and Gluckman, had incurred large debts with the Colonial Bank. Letaba Estates came under overt Schlesinger control in March 1931.

An adjacent farm, Beaconsfield, was purchased from the owners of Valencia Estates, the Foy family, in 1939.

In 1953 ownership of Letaba was transferred from Letaba Estates Ltd, to another Schlesinger holding company, the African Irrigated Land Company Ltd (AILCO). Established in 1923, AILCO had been concerned with managing Kendrew Estate, a somewhat unsuccessful venture in the Graaff-Reinet district, where irrigation problems effectively prevented the proposed citrus cultivation scheme from succeeding.

In 1967, Consolidated Citrus Estates (CCE) took over the management of Letaba and Zebediela from AILCO and African Realty Trust (ART) respectively, with the effect of concentrating all citrus production under one company. Valencia Estates, adjacent to Letaba, joined the fold in 1965.

CCE had, meanwhile, been running a citrus estate at Muden, in Natal, since 1957. This enterprise had been founded in 1917 as Golden Valley Citrus Estates; for various reasons, primarily recurrent labour shortages and its situation in the Midlands' hail belt, the farm was not a financial success and thus in 1944 Golden Valley went into voluntary liquidation.

Muden was then bought by the Pan African Land Company, a Schlesinger subsidiary which managed the farm until it was taken over by African Canning and Packing Company (ACPC) in about 1950.

ACPC, a Port Elizabeth-based canning factory (and the major shareholder in AILCO) dated back to 1921 when it was established to service Schlesinger's interests in several large pineapple plantations near Grahamstown at Langholm Estates - another ART project.

Subsequent developments within the Schlesinger Organisation are barely alluded to. It seems that ART sold out to African Consolidated Investment Corporation, a body closely allied to the two major property holding companies Townsview Investments (Pty) Ltd, and SOREC - Schlesinger Organisation Real Estate Corporation.

One body which remains enigmatic is the Native Farmers Association of Africa. Formed in 1912 by one of the founders of the African National Congress, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, the company was originally floated to enable Africans to buy land before the passage of the Native Land Act of 1913. Within months the company ran into financial difficulties, and was obliged to accept a partnership with Schlesinger, an arrangement which was to benefit Schlesinger greatly.

It was this Association which purchased, amongst others, the farms Daggakraal and Driefontein which later became the object of the Nationalist government's resettlement policy.

During the 1960s, Schlesinger's insurance arm, African Eagle and Guarantee Life, expanded rapidly; presumably it was this fact which attracted the attentions of the Anglo American Corporation. In 1974 Rand Selection, a subsidiary of Anglo American, bought John Schlesinger's controlling share in the Schlesinger Organisation. Included in the deal were such money spinners as Western Bank (later trading as Wesbank, a Barclays Bank enterprise) and Soroc and Townsview, later amalgamated with Amaprop.

Little remains of the Schlesinger Empire in South Africa today. Mandy Morons, Chief Executive of Schlesingers from the mid 1960s, resigned in favour of Gavin Relly in 1975 to concentrate on the development of Schlesinger European Investments, a new comglomerate based in London. At the last count, Rand Selection had a stake of 40% in SEI; by now, it is probably considerably more (sic).

Nb. Schematic Diagram of "Schlesinger Organisation" is not included in this published copy

Footnotes

1 Rangoon Gazette, 11 May 1927

2 S. N. I

3 Farmers Weekly, 1 June 1958

4 A. R. Van Blerk, 'Labour Report', 1953

After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, legislation was enacted which discriminated against the non-White section of the population and increased the racial segregation existing at the time of Union. This angered many Blacks and caused a series of strikes by Black workers. By the 1920s responsible Europeans, particularly churchmen, saw the importance of bringing the races together. Native Welfare Societies, consisting of liberal and philanthropic Europeans, were founded which in due course were replaced by Joint Councils, inter-racial in character.

The Joint Council movement was largely the inspiration of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones and Dr. J.E.K. Aggrey who in 1921 conducted a study tour of education in South Africa on behalf of the Phelps-Stokes Fund of the United States of America. They had seen the value of inter-racial councils in America and persuaded Dr. C.T. Loram, Chief Inspector of Education in Natal, and his friend J. D. Rheinallt Jones, Secretary of the Witwatersrand Council of Education, to establish a multi-racial organisation with the aim of promoting understanding and goodwill between the races. Rheinallt Jones founded the first Joint Council of Europeans and Africans in Johannesburg in 1921 and by 1931 there were in existence thirty European-African Joint Councils' three European-Indian Joint Councils and a European-Coloured Joint Council was in the process of formation. In all eighty Joint Councils were established, many of them continuing to exist side by side with the Institute of Race Relations after it was founded in 1929. By 1951 only two Joint Councils remained, of which only one was active.

During visits to South Africa in the 1920s Dr. Jesse Jones convinced Rheinallt Jones of the need to set up a national body to centralise interracial activities. The project was made possible by finance from the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the Carnegie Corporation. Rheinallt Jones convened an inter-racial conference in Cape Town in January 1929 which revealed enthusiasm for a national organisation. He called together a committee of seven prominent South Africans not connected with any political party - E.H. Brookes, Professor J. du Plessis, Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, Dr. C.T. Loram, T.W. Mackenzie, J.H. Nicholson and J.H. Pim. They met on 9 May 1929 at the house of the Rev. Dr. R.E. Phillips in Johannesburg, resolved to fern a South African Institute of Race Relations and elected C.T. Loram chairman Howard Pim treasurer and Rheinallt Jones secretary.

With the deaths of Mackenzie end Nicholson and the transfer of Loram to a professorial chair at Yale, the Committee was reduced to six but in 1930 Dr. J.G. van der Horst was added and in 1931 Professor R.F.A. Hoernle, Leo Marquard and Senator Lewis Byron. These ten committee members are regarded as the foundation members of the Institute.

In response to Vatican II, Pope Paul VI set up the Pontifical Commission for justice and peace in 1967. A justice and peace group was founded in Johannesburg in 1973/4. Bishop Orsmond later resuscitated the group. He appointed Fr. Emil Blaser O P as Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Reconciliation. The directive for justice and peace was integrated into the pastoral plan of the Catholic Church, the theme of which is Community serving Humanity. It was in this context that Justice and Peace, keenly aware that Apartheid has been a key characteristic of our situation set about addressing societal imbalances. Apart from its primary focus which is to raise awareness in the Catholic Community, Justice and Peace works closely with both local and international organisations (religious and lay) who are committed to transforming society through justice and reconciliation.

The Worker's Party of South Africa was formed in 1935 after the merger of the Communist League of South Africa and the Bolshevik Leninist League. The collection contains minutes, correspondence, articles and other records of this organisation. Also included are records of the Independent Labour Party and the League of International Communists.

Peace the Peace was an organisation established in 1993, initially under the auspices of Wits Vaal Peace Secretariat.

Using trained peace workers from troubled areas, the Corps aimed in promoting peace in these areas by monitoring; marches and public events and encouraging a culture of peace.

Young unemployed people were mainly trained as monitors and paid a small salary, Ephemeral records (L, M, N, 0) may he destroyed alter the year 2001

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) was established during the Apartheid era as a non-profit organisation. It became a champion in supporting the rights of those who were oppressed by an unjust legal system and oppressive government. After the establishment of a democratic government in 1994, the LRC mandate extended to enforce the rights established in the new Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The Apartheid Archives project is an international research initiative that aims to examine the nature of the experiences of racism of particularly 'ordinary' South Africans under the old apartheid order and their continuing effects on individual and group functioning in contemporary South Africa. The project is fundamentally premised on the understanding that traumatic experiences from the past will constantly attempt to re-inscribe themselves in the present, often in masked form, if they are not acknowledged, interrogated and addressed.

To this end, the project collects documents, analyses and provides access to personal or narrative accounts of the impact of apartheid on the lived realities of their authors. The project was conceptualized and initiated in August 2008 by 22 core researchers located at universities spanning South Africa, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom. Research for this project will take place in several phases and over a minimum of five years

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.