Brian was born in Chapel Allerton, Leeds in 1953, the same year his parents bought his house in Allerton Grange Gardens, and he lived there all his life.
Born prematurely, he suffered all his life with poor vision and coordination which affected his education at St Matthews primary school and Allerton Grange comprehensive school. His ambition was to work in health care and the family was proud of his achievement in securing a place to train as a nurse. But his dyspraxia prevented him from qualifying, which was a great disappointment to him. Despite this setback, he went on have a 35 year career as a postal worker in the Central Leeds sorting office. He often joked that he was the only Guardian reading member of the sorting office team.
Brian retired at 55 and found a new freedom in this stage of his life. He had a full daily and weekly routine which involved a regular neighbourhood walking and running route (which more recently included litter picking), reading books and newspapers, writing his journal and keeping up with the weekly soaps, a pleasure he shared every afternoon with Vera at number 14. He had a great interest in the wider world. One of the new joys he discovered in retirement was travelling abroad. He would join international guided package travel programmes to explore many of the places he read about - Alaska, Barcelona, Canada, Turkey, Jordan, Sri Lanka, India, Scandinavia, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam and of course his favourites South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. He particularly enjoyed waterfalls, contorted rock formations and long views over mountains and lakes. But before Brian had ever travelled abroad, he had already developed a deep interest in Southern African politics, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We therefore weren't surprised that he was determined to be there in person to witness the first post-apartheid election in 1993 and he travelled to Cape Town and Johannesburg to stand in line with black postal workers as they queued up to vote for the first time. He came back with many stories of the conversations he had had during this memorable trip. Throughout his life Brian kept a journal of newspaper items relating to the freedom struggles in Zimbabwe and South Africa which he assiduously typed up every day. This amazing archive will be donated to a suitable University institution in Southern Africa as he always wished.
Brian’s interest and knowledge gained from the wide scope of his reading was not just about Southern Africa.

Reverend Henry Adams was one of four men who came to South Africa in 1878 with Henry Brougham Bousfield, who became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Pretoria.

Clive Glaser lectures in History at Witwatersrand University, South Africa. He has published widely on the history of youth politics, youth culture, crime and sexuality in South Africa.

The South African History Archive (SAHA) was established by anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s, and was closely connected in its formative years to the United Democratic Front, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the African National Congress. It is an independent human rights archive dedicated to documenting, supporting and promoting greater awareness of past and contemporary struggles for justice through archival practices and outreach, and the utilisation of access to information laws.

ABET - Adult Basic Education and Training

APDUSA - African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa

CAC - Coloured Advisory Council

CAPS - Curriculum Assessments Policy Statements

CASS - Continuous Assessment

CDE - Centre for Development and Enterprise

CODESA - Convention for a Democratic South Africa

CRC - Coloured Representative Council

CTMWA - Cape Town Municipal Workers' Association

CTPA - Cape Teachers' Professional Association

ELRC - Education Labour Relations Council

ESST - Educational Support Services Trust

FET - Further Education and Training

GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Gear - Growth, Employment and Redistribution

IMF - International Monetary Fund

Nedlac - National Economic Development and Labour Council

Nepad - New Partnership for Africa's Development

NEPI - National Education Policy Investigation

NEUM - Non-European Unity Movement

NQF - National Qualifications Framework

NUM - New Unity Movement

NUPSAW - National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers

OBE - Outcomes-Based Education

RDP - Reconstruction and Development Programme

TIMSS - Third International Maths and Science Study

TLSA - Teachers' League of South Africa

UDUSA - Union of Democratic University Staff Associations

USSASA - United Schools Sports Association of South Africa

UWC - University of the Western Cape

WB - World Bank

Formed in 1943, the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) was a united front comprising of the All African Convention (AAC), ANTI Coloured Affairs Department (Anti-CAD) and the Anti-Segregation Council (ASC). Affiliated to the NEUM were The Teachers League of South Africa (TLSA), The Cape African Teachers Association (CATA), and the Society of Young Africans (SOYA).

Key policies and principles of NEUM constituted:

• The Ten Point Programme of minimum demands

• Policy of non-racialism

• Policy of non-collaboration and the boycott as a weapon of

struggle

• Policy of anti-imperialism

• Emphasis on importance of theory and principled approach to

struggle.

NEUM publications, such as the Ten Point Programme, Declaration to the People of South Africa and Declaration to the People of the World, The Torch Newspaper, as well as pamphlets, conference papers and Bulletins were used as a vehicle to propagate these policies and principles. A number of these publications are contained in this collection.

By 1958 the NEUM had split into two sections:

• The African Peoples Democratic Union of South Africa

(APDUSA)

was formed in 1961 under the leadership of IB Tabata who

went into exile and formed the Unity Movement of South Africa

(UMSA).

• Supporters of the leadership of the second section continued

operating in organisations like the TLSA, the Federation of

Cape Civic Associations (FCCA), a number of Educational

Fellowships and in the South African Council on Sport

(SACOS).

As the result of state repression NEUM ceased to exist by the 1960’s by which time nearly the entire leadership and its affiliates, including the editor of the Torch newspaper, were banned under the Suppression of Communism Act.

The New Unity Movement (NUM) was established in 1985 as the successor of NEUM, following a reconciliation between the two opposing sections in the 1980s. NUM continues to be dedicated and committed to the NEUM founding principles and policies.

Source: http://www.newunitymovement.org.za/

A persistent yet inaccurate myth prevails in South Africa that all of the apartheid state’s records were destroyed. This is not the case, in fact a vast collection of apartheid-era material remains locked away in public and private archives. Between 2012 and 2017, Open Secrets engaged in research in archives across the world in search of the lost stories of apartheid era economic crime. During this period, we collected approximately 40,000 documents in 25 public archives, consulting numerous collections in seven countries including South Africa, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. This material provided the backbone of the publication Apartheid Guns & Money: A Tale of Profit, authored by Hennie van Vuuren and published by Jacana in May 2017. The book, informed by the often newly declassified material found in this archive, tells a tale of global complicity with apartheid. It identifies a global covert network of banks, intelligence agencies, arms companies and politicians that supported apartheid through weapons and oil sanctions busting.

The bulk of the findings in the book, and the material now in this archive are from South African public archives. In mid-2013, 48 Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) requests were lodged with state agencies in terms of PAIA. Most of these documents date from the period 1978–94 and included TRC-related investigations (from the late 1990s). Most requests were ignored or refused on flimsy grounds. It was thanks to the persistence of The South African History Archive (SAHA), assisted by lawyers from Lawyers for Human Rights and pro-bono counsel from Geoff Budlender, Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, Nyoko Muvangua, Hermione Cronje, Lebogang Kutumela and Frances Hobden, that some departments finally (though only partly) relented, and provided access to this information. Much of it has been untouched by South African researchers. It’s a rich vein of material that demands our attention as we come to understand our story.

Where at all possible, the archives provided here include some of Open Secrets’ summaries of the documents contained there. All inventories, finding aids, and lists of folders requested are included wherever these are available.

Glenda Webster was married to David Webster from 25 January 1969 until 5 December 1988. They both grew up in Luanshya in Zambia, attending the same class at Luanshya Primary School in 1957. They met again in 1964 as first year students when David was at the University of the Witwatersrand and Glenda at Rhodes University. David joined Glenda at Rhodes the following year where they both completed their studies, Glenda a B Com with UED and David a BA Honours in Social Anthropology.

After they got married in 1969 they went to Mozambique where David embarked on fieldwork for his PhD, living for a year amongst the vaChopi in the chiefdom of Sammuson Mcumbi. This would prove a watershed moment in both their lives.

They returned to East London, South Africa where David worked as a sub-editor on the Daily Dispatch, and Glenda as a clerk. In 1971 they moved to Cape Town and then Johannesburg. David obtained a post as junior lecturer in the Wits Anthropology Department, while Glenda worked as a high school teacher. In 1973 she started working as a course writer for the then Barclays Bank (now FNB). This was to start her professional career in two fields: writing and editing for publication, and writing training for young professionals. This was followed by a move into journalism with Management Magazine and the Financial Mail in 1975. In the same year David was awarded his PhD, supervised by Professor David Hammond-Tooke, from Rhodes University.

June 1976 proved another watershed moment for the Webster’s. The Soweto uprising happened at a time when David was about to leave on his first sabbatical year at Manchester University in England. He spent two years in Manchester while Glenda had to return home not being able to find work. After David’s return in 1978 they moved into the Crown Mines community of ‘the white left’. This would prove a third watershed moment for it was during this time that several people were detained and incarcerated without trial, many of which they knew personally. They both became involved in detainee support work.

David Webster became one of the founder members of the Detainees’ Parents’ Support Committee (DPSC). A founder member of the Detainee Support Committee (DESCOM), Glenda Webster joined the Black Sash in 1983 and was appointed magazine editor at the start of the first State of Emergency in May 1985. She remained editor until the Black Sash National Committee moved to Cape Town at the end of 1986. During that time she worked at SACHED Trust as a course writer. David Webster was assassinated on 1 May 1989 outside his home in Troyeville, Johannesburg.

Regarding her tribute to David as a "defender of legality and due process" Glenda Webster says:

“From my experience I believe that David’s involvement in the DPSC gave him a role in struggle against apartheid that was most meaningful to him. It suited his values and his personality. After he was killed I received many letters of consolation. One came from Prof Etienne Mureinik who was the Dean of the Law School at Wits University where I was working as tutor at the time. He described David as a "fearless defender of legality and due process". In my opinion, it was the best and most meaningful attribute I had received about David.”

Glenda Webster’s essay “David Webster: A fearless defence of legality and due process?” seeks to explore the validity of Prof Mureinik’s perception of David’s contribution.

This introduction is based on information provided by the donor.

ANC - African National Congress

BLA - Black Local Authorities Act 102 of 1983

CCB - Civil Cooperation Bureau

DA - Democratic Alliance

DESCOM - Detainees' Support Committee

DPSC - Detainees' Parents' Support Committee

GLA - General Laws Amendment Act 62 of 1966

JMC - Joint Management Council

JSC - Judicial Services Commission

PFP - Progressive Federal Party

SADF - South African Defence Force

TRC - Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

UDF - United Democratic Front

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF) collection was first created in September 2015 as a digital collection, intended to create access to various digital records relating to the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation's work on non-racialism, through SAHA's online repository "Tracing the Unbreakable Thread".

The first series in this collection relates to the AKF's 2011 Leaders' Project. This series consists of 26 transcripts of interviews conducted for the project, as well as the project report, published by the AKF in 2012.

AMSA - ArcelorMittal South Africa

CER - The Centre for Environmental Rights

VEJA - Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) is a non-profit company and law clinic based in Cape Town. Established in October 2009 by eight civil society organisations (CSOs) in South Africa’s environmental and environmental justice sector, the CER provides legal and related support to environmental CSOs and communities.

This collection relates to CER's work in promoting transparency and accountability in environmental governance, aimed at testing and assessing the extent to which civil society can access environmental information held by regulators and private entities.

Many of the records included in this collection were released to CER and / or CER partner organisations in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA), such as the Vanderbijlpark Environmental Master Plan, developed by ISCOR from 2000 to 2002 and released by ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) to the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) in 2014 after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ordered AMSA to do so. The SCA judgment confirmed VEJA’s constitutional right to know the extent and impact of the steel giant’s activities on the Vaal communities’ health and the environment.

The aim of this collection is to establish a proper archive for CER’s third party documents and the next series of documents will include Eskom licences, compliance reports and health studies.