Spark Newspaper was a mouthpiece in the early 1960s for the people's movement fighting against Apartheid. It exposed social problems and issues caused by discrimination. Key members of the newspaper were F. Carneson, M. P. Naicker, B. Bunting, R. First and G. Mbeki. It was banned by Vorster under the Suppression of Communism Act. The last issue was distributed on the 28 March 1963.

The Aids in Context Conference focused on the historical, social and cultural context of HIV/AIDS, and was held at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg from 4-8 April 2001. The conference arose as part of a process undertaken by the AIDS Consortium, Soul City and the Wits History Workshop to encourage further research, the wider dissemination of existing work and comparative study - especially in relation to the rest of Africa. The conference aimed to promote interdisciplinary research on key topics.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by the Government of National Unity to investigate crimes committed during the apartheid era. It was created through the promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No.34, 1995.

This Act, among other things, states that the commission's aims are to investigate and provide 'as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights'.

The commission began its work on 16 December 1995 with a mandate to investigate, establish facts and compile reports, and if suitable grant amnesties in relation to human rights violations which had occurred in South Africa during the period of 1 January 1960 to 10 May 1994.

The TRC effected its mandate through three committees; the Amnesty Committee, Reparation and Rehabilitation (R&R) Committee and Human Rights Violations (HRV) Committee.

Human Rights Violations (HRV) Committee

The task of the HRV Committee was to investigate human rights abuses that took place between 1960, based on statement made to the TRC. The Committee established the identity of the victims, their fate or present whereabouts, and the nature and extent of the harm they suffered; and whether the violations were the result of deliberate planning by the state or any other organization, group or individual.

Reparation and Rehabilitation (R&R)

The R&R Committee's main task was to recommend a policy to the government regarding the measures that the government should take to provide reparation to victims of gross human rights violations. The Act empowered the R&R Committee to provide victim support to ensure that the Truth Commission process restored victims' dignity, and to formulate policy proposals and recommendations on rehabilitation and healing of survivors, their families and communities at large.

Amnesty Committee (AC)

The primary function of the AC was to ensure that applications for amnesty were considered in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Applicants could apply for amnesty for any act, whether of omission or offence, associated with a political objective committed between 1 March 1960 to December 1993. The cut off date was later extended to 10 May 1994.

The objectives of the Commission were to promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding, which transcends the conflicts and divisions of the past by:

Establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights which did occur during the period from 1st March 1960 to the cut-off date including antecedents, circumstances, factors and contexts of such violations, as well as the perspectives of the victims and the motives and perspectives of the persons responsible for the commission of the violations, by conducting investigations and holding hearings;

Facilitating the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of all relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective;

Establishing and making known the fate of victims and by restoring the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate in their own words the nature of the violations which they suffered, and by recommending the measures in respect of reparations;

Compiling a comprehensive report;

Analyzing and describing causes, nature and extent of gross violations of human rights that occurred between March 1960 and 10 May 1994, including identification of the individuals and organizations responsible for such violations;

Making recommendations to the president on measures to prevent future violations of human rights.

The Johannesburg Regional Office

The Johannesburg regional office was located in the heart of downtown Johannesburg and served four provinces: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West Province and North province.

The Johannesburg Investigation Unit was a small unit, comprising only 12 members.

The unit was rather amorphous, without clear strategies on how and what to investigate, unclear regional leadership with members lacking basic investigative skills among other shortfalls.

In a sentence, it was not a well-controlled or coordinated process, at least as it refers to the Johannesburg Regional Office.

Nevertheless a total of 6200 statements were made to the office; twenty-five Human Rights Violations hearings were organized at which witnesses gave oral testimonies of gross human rights violations, and six post-hearing follow-up meetings were held in the different areas.

The Dawie Bosch Collection comprises three discrete groups of records. The first group documents the process of formulating the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA).

The second group documents the struggle for restitution of expropriated land by representatives of the Makuleke community, while the third group comprises newspaper clippings and pamphlets which were published and disseminated in the wake of the announcement of establishing a Tri-Cameral Parliament in 1983/1984.

Each of the archives groups represents the socio-political activities of Dawie Bosch and fellow land rights activists.

Bosch completed a law degree at the University of Stellenbosch, specialising in labour law. Already as a student Bosch, as a member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), was politically active amongst the rural population, focusing of the situation of farm workers.

In 1985, during the first state of emergency called out by the Apartheid state in response to the 1976 Soweto Uprisings and their aftermath, Bosch got involved in a literacy project with farm workers in the Montague area. He was also involved in legal advice centres.

Bosch then joined the Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS) and the Land and Agricultural Policy Centre (LAPC), where he was involved in research and policy development issues in the broader field of labour law. His activism amongst rural workers made him aware of the tenuousness of their rights to tenancy.

One of the most pressing legacies of Apartheid which the post-Apartheid government had to redress was the profound inequality of land: in 1994 approximately 87% of South Africa?s surface was in the possession of the white minority, effected by the Natives Land Act No. 27 of 1913, the Native Trust and Land Act No. 18 of 1936 as well as the Group Areas Acts Nos. 41 of 1950, 77 of 1957 and 36 of 1966.

In order to redress this glaring ill-distribution of land, the post-Apartheid government has, since its inauguration in 1994 passed 22 statutes which are directed at the transformation of the numerous racially discriminatory land laws.

Additionally, the state has spent hundreds of millions of rands buying up farmland in the rural areas for redistribution and for purposes of its tenure reform programmes. According to Bosch the 2002-2003 budget for restitution alone was in the region of R287 million. The land reform delivery amounts to an average of 300 000 hectares per annum.

The three most important pieces of cognate legislation to advance agricultural land reform and the redistribution of agricultural land are:

The Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994

The Labour Reform (Labour) Tenants Act 3 of 1996 and

The Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997.

The Restitution Act established the Land Claims Court for the lodging of claims for restitution of a right to land. The Tenants Act secures the right of occupation of labour tenants on farms. However, there are countless people who, as Bosch and his fellow land rights activists discovered, are not protected by these statutes. Hence Bosch and fellow land rights activists of the CRLS and the LAPC approached the then Minister of Land Affairs, Derek Hanekom, to lobby for tenancy rights of rural tenants with the Ministry with a view to devising a framework for policy and legislation relating to security of tenure and tenancy.

Bosch was invited by the Director-General for Land Affairs to draft submissions for legislation to ensure security of tenure for rural tenants. Together with a team comprising 8 land rights activists and legal experts Bosch prepared policy inputs and proposals for the ANC Study Group of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee and other stakeholders for comment. The drafts, submissions and comments are included in the group entitled 'The Extension of Security of Tenure Act'.

The second archives group documents the attempts made by the Makuleke community to reclaim land that had been appropriated in 1969 and incorporated into the Kruger National Park in that year. Bosch was commissioned by the Chief Land Claims' Commission to act as facilitator between the Makuleke community and the various government departments that were drawn into the dispute.

The archives group entitled 'Makuleke Claims for the Restitution of Land Rights', reflects the process of land restitution and illustrates the legal complexities associated with the restitution of land appropriated by the Apartheid state.

In 1999 the final agreements and court judgements were published by Deny Reitz as a book 'The Makuleke Land Claim Settlement', authored by Bosch. The book is held in the National Libraries of South Africa.

The statues that relate to these two groups have been included in the Collection.

The third group entitled 'Responses to the Announcement of a Tri-Cameral Parliament (1983 - 1984)' are newspaper clippings and pamphlets which Bosch had collected in his capacity as a committee member of the UDF for the Stellenbosch area and as a UDF activist on the campus of the University of Stellenbosch.

Coertse, N. Juta's business law; Vol. 7, Iss 2, pp.56 - 60, 1999

Du Plessis, W. SA public law; Vol. 15, Iss. 2, pp. 549 - 573, 2000

Kok, J.A. De jure; Vol.33, Iss 1, pp. 161 - 174, 2000

Mahomed, A. De rebus, Iss 405, p. 53, October 2001

Explanatory guide to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 62 of 1997 issued by and obtainable from the Department of Land Affairs, 1998.

ESTA - Extension of Security of Tenure Act

CPA - Communal Property Association

CRLS - Centre for Rural Legal Studies

LAPC - Land and Agricultural Policy Centre

PUEOL - Prevention of Unlawful Eviction and Occupation of Land

UDF - United Democratic Front

Lucia Raadschelders is a Dutch national who worked at the Anti-Apartheids Beweging Nederland (AABN/ Dutch Anti Apartheid Movement) from 1979 to 1985. After resigning from the Dutch AAM she was recruited to work for the African National Congress (ANC) in Swaziland to run a safe house. She lived in Swaziland from 1986 until she had to to return to the Netherlands in mid-1988. She was then recruited to work with the ANC in Zambia as part of Operation Vula from late-1988 onwards.

After the unbanning of the ANC she returned to the Netherlands and came to live in South Africa towards the end of 1993. She has worked for several NGO's in South Africa and is currently employed as an archivist at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

Her small collection mainly contains materials from the Dutch AAM and Operation Vula.

Yasmin Sooka is a qualified Human Rights lawyer, who joined the TRC in 1995 as Deputy Chair of the Human Rights Violations Committee and she also served as commissioner to the TRC as well. She has provided an assortment of documents associated with the TRC culled from a range of individuals and organizations. She arranged for photocopies of these records to be donated to SAHA and for the originals to be donated to the National Archives of South Africa. Since 2001 Sooka is the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR)

The TRC Archival Audit

SAHA and Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand have embarked on a project to locate and retrieve records relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). The [project entailed conducting an archival audit of all existing TRC records in order to identify and locate documentation in danger of being lost.

In the process of conducting the archival audit, SAHA and HP located many collections from individuals and organizations that participated in the TRC process. Selections from these materials as well as TRC related material found in the freedom of Information Collection and other pre-existing SAHA and HP collections, were digitized and can be accessed online at http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/.

A guide to archival resources relating to South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission can also be found at: http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/trc_directory.pdf

The National Security Archive (NSA) is a non-profit research institute based in Washington D.C., which was founded in 1985. The records in the National Security Archive are obtained via US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The National Security Archive was an important precursor and inspiration to the formation of SAHA's FOIP Programme.

The NSA initiated its South Africa project in 1986 and subsequently made over 460 FOIA requests to US government agencies in relation to material relating to South Africa. This collection comprises digital scans of materials from this project. The original materials may be reviewed in the National Security Archive's library facility in Washington D.C.

The Brian Currin Collection offers a small insight into the life of a person who, trained as a lawyer, dedicated his life and work for the vindication of human rights fearlessly and with integrity.

Currin, born 20 September 1950, studied law at the University of Stellenbosch. He practiced in Pretoria from 1977 to 1987, specializing in labour law and civil and human rights. Currin established a labour practice from which he represented mainly trade unions and workers in the politically stormy 1980s.

His experiences in these fields of law led him to establish the National Directorate of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in 1987. He led the LHR until the end of 1994. He then worked as an independent consultant in two areas:

As a legal consultant he dealt with issues relating to constitutional law, human rights, labour and employment law;

Currin acted as a conflict resolution consultant in arbitration, mediation and negotiation for parties from labour, community and politics.

In 1989 Currin led a delegation of human rights lawyers to meet with the then exiled African National Congress's (ANC) Constitutional Team. During the Multi-Party negotiations (1991 to 1993) he made representations to the Technical Committee that had been tasked with drawing up the Bill of Rights.

In the field of conflict resolution Currin has mediated disputes both nationally and internationally. In addition to mediation interventions, Currin was instrumental in numerous transformation processes such as the establishment of the Broad Transformation Forum at the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Negotiating Forum, the Transformation of Student Governance at the University of Pretoria (UP) as well as servicing the following government departments: Education, Environmental Affairs, Office of the Deputy President, Safety and Security and Foreign Affairs.

The records accumulations that resulted from these particular areas of work do not form part of this Collection, but are in the custody of the archives and registries of the individual organisations for which Currin had undertaken the interventions.

While the national conflict resolution interventions often went hand in hand with transformation processes, the international interventions, to wit in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Israel, were oftentimes purely attempts at conflict resolution, mediation or acting in advisory capacities.

Interventions in Northern Ireland form the main part of Currin's international engagement. Indeed he 'commutes' between South Africa and Northern Ireland to this end. Work in Northern Ireland includes:

Acting as the Chairperson since 1998 of one of the Commissions of the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement (GFA) which represents the British and Northern Ireland governments

Mediation of the Drumcree/Orange Order standoff in 2000 and 2001

Appointment as Chairperson of the Sentence Review Commissioners by the British Government in terms of the Northern Ireland (Sentences Act) of 1998.

This body provides for the early release of political prisoners.

While the actual records accumulations generated by these activities reside with the organisation that created the records, there are references in this Collection to many of these activities.

Currin was highly sought after for his expertise and engagement in the processes of conflict resolution and transformation. As his records testify, he was requested to deliver presentations, or act as an expert advisor in these broader fields in the Scandinavian countries, Eastern Europe as well as in North America, always part of the transnational community involved in transitional justice and human rights

With regard to the release and representation of political prisoners in South Africa, Currin has been involved in the following initiatives:

From 1990 to 1991 he headed the Political Prisoners Release Programme that acted in terms of an agreement concluded to that end by the Apartheid government and the ANC

Currin was both a Trustee and Board member of the South African Legal Defence Fund which funded and represented anti-Apartheid activists in the political trials of the early 1990s

From 1993 to 1995 Currin was the Chairperson of the Department of Justice Advisory Committee on Amnesty and Indemnity for Political Prisoners. He was appointed by Cabinet to make recommendations on amnesty and indemnity to prepare the way for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

While still the National Director of the LHR (in 1993), Currin challenged the mass destruction of state records ordered by Johan Mostert, Head of the former Security Secretariat. Currin took the Apartheid State President, the Minister of National Education (the then State Archives Service SAS, now National Archives, was an office within the National Education Ministry), the Director of Archives and the Director-General of National Intelligence Services (NIS) to the former Supreme Court to argue that state records, even when 'classified' fall within the ambit of the current Archives Act, which provides for conditions for destruction or, to employ the technical term, its 'disposal'. Currin's was a Pyrrhic victory at best.

There are references to this court challenge in Currin Collection. A brief discussion of this intervention can be found in the Final Report of the TRC: Volume 1 Chapter 8: 'The Destruction of Records'. Citation details of the court case are: Case No. 19304/93, Supreme Court of South Africa, Transvaal Provincial Division.

In 2003 Currin was made Director of Diversity and Transformation Solutions, a BEE company that operates in the fields of dispute management, management consulting and transformation facilitation. However, Currin still operates internationally as well.

While the Brian Currin Collection is a private collection, the records do give substantial insight into the professional life of the donor. As a private collection it is incomplete in the sense that a number of items that were regarded as being too personal for the public domain were removed from the Collection. Some items were faxed transmissions and had faded to the point of being illegible.

These documents were disposed of, while those that had maintained a certain degree of legibility have been photocopied and form part of the collection. This was done in collaboration with Currin himself.

The processor of this Collection was given several lever arch files of documents. After a number of bouts of sorting, the records were divided into three discrete groups:

Personal letters, which provide insight into personal and working relationships with individuals and organisations

Diary files that covers events over a period of 7 years, from 1987 to 1993

Subject files including topics such as: Political prisoners and Indemnity

The records are paper-based records and comprise correspondence, diary entries, invitations to events, programmes of conferences and the like, newspaper clippings and cards. However, an audio cassette entitled: 'Diakonia Breakfast Briefing 4/8/94. Brian Currin on the Truth Commission,' forms part of an otherwise entirely paper-based collection. [Ethel appears to have misplaces this cassette as it is not in the boxes.]

As the largest part of the collection comprises 'diary files' consisting of multiple types of documents - traditional diary entries, letters, newspaper articles, drafts of addresses and press statements - the methodology employed was to arrange and classify the records/records accumulations strictly chronologically - but taking into account how the donor had arranged his documents in the lever arch files.

ACCORD African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes -

ACLU American Civil Liberties Union -

AIUSA Amnesty International USA -

ANC African National Congress -

ARMSCOR Armaments Corporation of South Africa -

CCMA Commission for Mediation and Arbitration -

CIDSE Cooperation Internationale pour le Developpement et la Solidarit -

CODESA Convention for a Democratic South Africa -

COMSA Commonwealth Observer Mission to South Africa -

CRIMSA Criminological Society of Southern Africa -

EAC Employee Advisory Centre -

FOYSA Four Outstanding Young South Africans Award -

GFA Good Friday Agreement -

IDDA Institute for Democracy and Development in Africa -

IRA Irish Republican Army -

JMC Joint Management Committee -

LHR Lawyers for Human Rights -

MEC Member of the Executive Council -

NDA National Development Agency -

NEHAWU National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union -

NGO Non - governmental organisation

NI Northern Ireland -

NIACRO Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders -

NOVIB Nederlandse Organisatie voor Internationale Bijstand (Also: Oxfam - Netherlands)

SACBC Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference -

SACCON South African Constitutional Consultants -

SADF South African Defence Force -

SADTU South African Democratic Teachers' Union -

SAHA South African History Archive -

SAHWCO South African Health Workers' Congress -

SAIRR South Africa Institute of Race Relations -

SAP South African Police -

SRC Sentence Review Commission -

TEC Transitional Executive Council -

TNDT Transitional national Development Trust -

UCIP Catholic Union of the Press -

UDF United Democratic Front -

UN United Nations -

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation -

UNISA University of South Africa -

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Wendy Watson was appointed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to manage its KwaZulu-Natal/Free State regional office in Durban for the entire duration of its operations.

The records of this collection reflect Watson's private reflections on some of the tasks which she faced as the Regional Manager for the TRC in the KwaZulu-Natal/Free State Region.

Working Group on International Relations (WGIR)

During the late 1980s, it became apparent that momentous changes were afoot in South Africa. These changes to some degree mirrored changes that were taking place on the African continent as well as internationally. In the international arena, a new spirit of rapprochement existed between the USA and USSR. Traditional 'East vs. West' polarities were receding. The Cold War was ending; Soviet Communism was in decline; Germany would soon be reunified. On the African continent, negotiated settlements were being sought for conflicts in Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.

In South Africa, too, the winds of change were blowing. Continued mass-based protest, together with international diplomatic and economic interventions, had brought South Africa to the point where it was increasingly clear that Apartheid was in the last stages of its ignominious existence. However, the African National Congress (ANC) was still banned, along with many other organisations. The United Democratic Front (UDF) and other organs of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) spearheaded resistance efforts within the country. The WGIR was a project of the UDF set up to facilitate the following aims:[1]

To research international events and the institutions and governments that influence such events.

To initiate consultation and evaluation of events and policies and the data that flows from such research.

To provide a structured reference point within the country easily accessible to community groups.

To provide those parties engaged in the process of peaceful and fundamental change the data base and access to an evaluative process on international questions of importance to the country.

The material in the collection conforms to these aims. International events are analysed, and relevance to South Africa is evaluated. Contacts and consultations with international organizations are fostered. On the unbanning of the ANC and other parties, the WGIR served as a contact point between the newly released leaders and the international community. The WGIR also facilitated links between prospective black leaders and international training providers, particularly in the areas of public administration and science and technology.

As the ANC became better organized, it developed its own departments dealing with international relations. The WGIR thus shifted its focus from macro international relations to networking with local community based organizations in the area of development.