ABM - Abahlali base Mjondolo (Shack-dwellers Movement)

ACAOSA - Association for Community Based Advice Officers in South Africa

AEC - Anti-Eviction Campaign

AMCU – Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union -

ANC - African National Congress

APF - Anti-Privatisation Forum

BCEA - Basic Conditions of Employment Act

BBBEE - Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment

BEE - Black Economic Empowerment

CAPS - Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements

CALS - Centre for Applied Legal Studies

CASAC - Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution

CBO - Community-Based Organisation

CC - Constitutional Court

CCMA - Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration

CCS - Centre for Civil Society

CEC - Central Executive Committee

CER - Centre for Environmental Rights

CoRMSA - Consortium for Refugees and Migrants South Africa

COSATU - Congress of South African Trade Unions

DA - Democratic Alliance

DMR - Department of Minerals and Energy

DOJ - Department of Justice

EE - Equal Education

EFF - Economic Freedom Fighters

EJNF - Environmental Justice Networking Forum

FXI - Freedom of Expression Institute

HRC - Human Rights Commission

HSRC - Human Sciences Research Council

ICASA - Independent Communications Authority of South Africa

IDASA - Institute for Democracy in South Africa

IDP – Integrated Development Plan -

IPID - Independent Police Investigation Directorate

ISS - Institute for Security Studies

JSC - Judicial Services Commission

LASA - Legal Aid South Africa

LHR - Lawyers for Human Rights

LPM - Landless People’s Movement

LRA - Labour Relations Act

LRC - Legal Resources Centre

MDGs - Millennium Development Goals

MSA - Municipal Systems Act

MFMA - Municipal Finance Management Act

MPRDA - Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act

NADEL - National Association of Democratic Lawyers

NEMA - National Environmental Management Act

NGO - Non-Governmental Organisations

NIA - National Intelligence Agency

NPA - National Prosecuting Authority

NUMSA - National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa

ODAC - Open Democracy Advice Centre

OUTA - Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance

PAIA - Promotion of Access to Information Act

PAJA - Promotion of Access to Administrative Justice Act

PEPUDA - The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act

PIE - Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act

POSIB - Protection of State Information Bill (the ‘Secrecy Bill’)

R2K - Right to Know Campaign

RCL - Representative Council of Learners (Schools)

RDP - Reconstruction and Development Programme

RGA - Regulation of Gatherings Act

SABC - South African Broadcasting Corporation

SACP - South African Communist Party

SACE – South African Council of Educators -

SADC Tribunal – Southern African Development Community Tribunal -

SALC - Southern Africa Litigation Centre

SAMWU - South African Municipal Workers Union

SAPS - South African Police Services

SARS - South African Revenue Service

SASSA - South African Social Security Agency

SASA - South African Schools Act

SATU – South African Teachers Union -

SCA - Supreme Court of Appeal

SERI - Socio-Economic Rights Institute

SDCEA - South Durban Community Environmental Alliance

SJC - Social Justice Coalition

Sonke - Sonke Gender Justice

SSA - State Security Agency (also SASSA – South African State Security Agency)

SWEAT - Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force

TAC - Treatment Action Campaign

UISP - Upgrading Informal Settlements Programme

The Constitution and Civil Society Project collection documents a multi-faceted research and archival project conducted by the South African History Archive (SAHA) since 2014 with the primary aim to explore the changing relationship between civil society and the South African Constitution as we approach the 20th anniversary of the formal adoption of the Constitution in 1996.

The collection to date consists of thirty-three interviews (audio-recordings and transcripts) conducted by Dale McKinley with leaders of a range of civil society organisations as well as individual activists, academics and lawyers. The interviews cover the three main sectors of civil society – legal/litigation; NGO/academic, and community/union/activist. Interviewees for this project include: Alfani Yoyo (Consortium for Refugees and Migrants South Africa), Alison Tilley (Open Democracy Advice Centre), Booby Peek (Groundwork), Bonita Meyersfeld (Centre for Applied Legal Studies - University of the Witwatersrand), Cherith Sanger (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force), David Fig (BioWatch), Dustin Kramer (Social Justice Coalition), Elroy Paulus and Lynette Maart (Black Sash), Gareth Newham (Institute for Security Studies), Geoff Budlender (Human Rights Advocate/ legal Resources Centre), Jaap de Visser (Community Law Centre - University of the Western Cape), Jackie Dugard (Human Rights activist/legal scholar/Socio-Economic Rights Institute), Jacob van Garderen and David Cote (Lawyers for Human Rights), Jane Duncan (ex-Director of Freedom of Expression Institute; University of Johannesburg Department of Media/Communications), Janet Love (Legal Resources Centre), John Appolis (veteran unionist and political activist), John Clarke (Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance), Judith February (ex-IDASA; Institute for Security Studies), Kate Tissington (Socio-Economic Rights Institute), Mark Heywood (Section 27), Mashao Chauke (Schubart Park Residents Association), Melissa Fourie (Centre for Environmental Rights), Nathan Geffen (ex-TAC leader; editor of GroundUp), Nicole Fritz (Southern Africa Litigation Centre), Nthuthuzo Ndzomo and Bayanda Mazwi (Equal Education), Patrick Bond (Centre for Civil Society – University of KwaZulu-Natal), Prakashnee Govender (COSATU Parliamentary Office), Richard Callan (University of Cape Town Law School), Roger Ronnie (ex-General Secretary of SAMWU/unionist and activist), S’bu Zikode (Abahlali base Mjondolo), Samantha Hargreaves (ex-Landless People's Movement/Women’s Rights activist), Sandra Liebenberg (University of Stellenbosch Law School) and Simon Delaney (Human Rights lawyer - independent).

Complementing the interviews is a collection of research materials on crucial constitutional rights cases that have come before the Constitutional Court as well as academic, legal and activist materials written over the past two decades on civil society’s interpretation of and interactions with the constitution.

The issues explored during the research phase of this project include:

• The impact of the constitution on the work of civil society;

• The changing attitudes of civil society towards, and levels of trust in, the constitution;

• The extent to which the constitution is accessible to civil society as a tool for transformation.

These oral history and research materials as well as the project report “Riding the Transitional Rollercoaster – the shifting relationship between civil society and the Constitution in-post apartheid South Africa” by Dale McKinley form part of a broader SAHA project collection on the Constitution.

The Constitution and Civil Society Project collection also builds on the materials contained in the Constitution Hill Trust collection (AL3295). The latter comprise a wealth of materials that speak not only to the history of the site, but also the process by which heritage sites are conceptualised and developed, and the vision and development of the constitutional court within the site. It is a combination of historical archive (donated materials related to the history of the site, going back over a century) and institutional archive (materials generated by Constitution Hill Trust relating to activities of the site, and of the Constitutional Court). Materials have been donated by ex-prisoners and their families (such as drawings done by Fatima Meer while imprisoned), as well as ex-wardens and staff (such as handcuffs, batons, uniforms, etc.).