Área de identidad
Código de referencia
Título
Fecha(s)
- 1988 - 1992 (Agregación)
- 1985 -1 995 (Agregación)
Nivel de descripción
Fondo
Volumen y soporte
53.2 linear metres (532 archival boxes); 8 oversized folders/volumes
Área de contexto
Nombre del productor
Historia biográfica
Planact started in 1985 as a voluntary organisation in response to a situation in which professionals and academics were being approached by community groups for assistance on problems of housing and development.
The commitment was to pool resources and provide services to community groups and trade unions that did not have easy access to expertise and resources.
Planacts' members included architects, engineers, planners, lawyers, sociologists and people with organisational and administrative experience.
Planact is a funded non-profit organisation working in the field of housing, local government and urban development. Its principal object is to provide technical, professional and organisational skills and assistance to communities adversely affected by state planning, apartheid policies and economic inequalities.
Planact works in the following areas:
Housing
Land
Services - provision of bulk infrastructure such as water, sanitation, roads and refuse- community services such as health and educational facilities
Local Government
Local Economic Development
Planact has been one of the most successful NGOs during the dying days of apartheid. This is evident in the number of local and national campaigns that Planact played a supportive role, and the volume of material to be found in this collection.
Planact's growth and expansion has been phenomenal. In 1986 Planact had only two full time staff members, and by 1992 there were over forty full-time staff members.
After the first democratic election in 1994, many of the Planact staff members resigned to take up key positions in the newly formed democratic government both at the national, provincial and local level.
The funding scenario also changed during this period. Many of the International Donors who had funded Planact directly, now channelled the money to the democratic government through bilateral and multi-lateral agreements.
This necessitated a rethinking and restructuring of Planact by 1995.
This led to a scaling down and refocusing of Planact activity.
Planact needed to develop relationships with the newly emerging local government entities by assisting with change management & transformation.
But at the same time also maintaining links with civil society through development projects.
Institución archivística
Historia archivística
Origen del ingreso o transferencia
Área de contenido y estructura
Alcance y contenido
The initial deposit of Planact material was made when the premises that Planact occupied in Rockey Street, Yeoville were literally bursting at the seams.
This was mainly material in their storerooms.
This was the documentation of completed projects that Planact was involved with, and the files from the offices staff who had resigned from Planact.
Before the new staff occupied the office, the 'old' material was packed up and kept in the storeroom.
The bulk of the Planact material, however, was transferred to SAHA after they moved to their new premises in Braamfontein.
This also included the documents from the offices of ex-Planact employees and from the Planact Resource Centre which was closed down.
The bulk of the collection covers the period 1988 - 1992. There is a gap of earlier Planact material - both of the project work and the internal organisational material. An attempt has been made to separate the project documentation (Sections 1-49 & Sections A1-A70) from the organisation records (Sections P1-P9).
However, this was not totally possible as in some instances there was a blurring of distinction when project work was discussed at meetings, and memos and reports written.
The first deposit was roughly sorted, and listed by Ephraim Siluma.
When Ephraim had almost completed, the second acquisition arrived.
It was then decided to incorporate this with the first, and to rework the classification scheme using the broad headings that the (newly arrived) boxes were labelled with (Sections 1-49).
Sections A1-A70 was added to incorporate material that was either misfiled, marked miscellaneous or unknown.
Planact did not have a centralised filing scheme - each staff kept their documents in various systems with some using the Resource Centre as a repository.
As a result there are overlaps and duplications in some of the sections.
Where possible this has been weeded out. Given the size of the collection, documents on particular topics or townships are dispersed throughout the collection.
An attempt has been made to cross-reference material to assist researchers in finding related material.
Given the voluminous nature of the collection, 3 people have worked on this collection and creating this finding aid.
This is based on the Planact Annual Reports, informational leaflets and brief discussions with an ex-Planact employee.
Valorización, destrucción y programación
Acumulaciones
Sistema de arreglo
Área de condiciones de acceso y uso
Condiciones de acceso
This collection is open for research
Condiciones
Idioma del material
Escritura del material
Notas sobre las lenguas y escrituras
Características físicas y requisitos técnicos
Instrumentos de descripción
Uploaded finding aid
Área de materiales relacionados
Existencia y localización de originales
Existencia y localización de copias
Unidades de descripción relacionadas
Área de notas
Identificador/es alternativo(os)
Puntos de acceso
Puntos de acceso por materia
Puntos de acceso por lugar
Puntos de acceso por autoridad
Tipo de puntos de acceso
Área de control de la descripción
Identificador de la descripción
Identificador de la institución
Reglas y/o convenciones usadas
Estado de elaboración
Nivel de detalle
Fechas de creación revisión eliminación
20090612