Under apartheid, blacks were excluded from national elections The Bantu Homelands Constitution Act in 1971 gave the government the authority to confer independence on territories identified as black homelands and blacks were expected to exercise their voting right in their homeland. In 1984, the Tricameral Parliament was introduced. This resulted in the establishment of the House of Delegates and the House of Representatives for Indian and Coloured South Africans respectively. These bodies had very limited powers.

In February 1990, President FW de Klerk announced the unbanning of political parties such as the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress. Parties across the full spectrum of political backgrounds met to draw up a new constitution for the country in the negotiating forum, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). On the 8th of May 1996, this was adopted by the Government which had been elected in the first democratic election in 1994.

The material does not refer to all the constitutional changes prior to 1994, but rather concentrates on the development of the 1996 Constitution.

Unpublished material may only be quoted with the permission of the author.

The material dates from 1970 to 2001. Dates refer to the dates on the material.

The papers have been divided into four main categories under subject headings, these are:

Clippings which include popular newspaper and magazine articles.

Documents include pamphlets concerning the Vote No campaign, journal articles about constitutional reform, papers delivered at conferences and Hansard extracts.

Publications include government issued material and published reports and analyses.

Legislation contains working drafts and published Acts in respect of constitutional reform.