Stan Winer, donor of the collection, is a South African born in 1940. He is a freelance journalist, a writer and a researcher. Winer is mainly interested in politics, international relations and issues related to Human Rights.

His published works have featured in both international and local media. His interest in human right issues led him into collecting material and information related to Human Rights abuses in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

Winer and the records

The collection is made up of correspondence, books, manuscripts, photos and news-clippings, newsletters, miscellaneous. It includes among other things, a manuscript authored by Winer himself, about South African covert operations.

The work was originally dedicated to the proposition that the human rights records of the former South African regime should not be judged in isolation of the Cold War, and the Western Society of nations, of which South Africa was a part.

Also, there are newspaper cuttings relating to South African state-sponsored death squads, train violence, and other covert actions that were perpetrated by the South African Government such as massacres. Furthermore, among the collection is primary documentation relating to civil litigation by Stan Winer and others in the British High Court, concerning the defamatory book Inside BOSS (Penguin:London, 1981) by one Gordon Winter, a self-styled defector from the bureau of State Security

Also, there are miscellaneous primary and photocopied documents dealing with Inside BOSS, together with some photos in the Dutch edition of Inside BOSS and a comprehensive collection of news-clippings also concerning Inside BOSS.

Another item in the collection is a book titled Rough Justice: the extra-ordinary truth about Charles Richardson and his gang by Robert Parker 1981. Fontana Paperbacks: Great Britain. In donating the book, Winer intends to direct those interested in the underground operations of the Apartheid government, as some of the issues are referred to in the book.

Lastly, the Cape Town trauma centre for survivors of torture and political violence used to publish a monthly newsletter which Winer sporadically received, and now is apparently discontinued.

The newsletter contained, among other things, 'stories' by ex-political prisoners and apartheid human rights violations survivors. Some of the topics discussed in the newsletter included 'Healing of emotional pain', 'Approaching the TRC with complaints in particular about reparations, pensions', 'Discussions with government about special pensions', 'looking at projects that will create opportunities for people in the group' etc.

Cross reference on photographs and news-clippings - See the SAHA ephemera database