Items in the collection.

The collection contains record books originating from the former gold mines Robinson Deep Gold Mining Company, Luipaardsvlei Estate and Gold Mining Company, Rietfontein Consolidated Mines and few unidentified. They cover the years 1904-1972 of gold mining operations in Johannesburg.

The collection includes biographical material, personal correspondence, photographs, transcripts of unpublished writings, drawings and sketches as well as various student and labour publications.

It has been recognized that there is no comprehensive and complete archive on The Market Theatre that covers the years mentioned above, and this is a serious gap in historical recording of knowledge in South Africa. The archives that exist at present are housed in various places across the country. These include the Wits Historical Papers, The Star Newspaper, NELM and the State Theatre archive. This project proposed filling that gap by initially establishing what is missing in the various existing archives, negotiating with custodians of said archives in order to possibly bring original material together under one roof or to make copies of this material. The project also aimed at conducting interviews across the country with practitioners who worked at The Market Theatre during that time in order to compile a living memory that will be included in the archive, before this valuable knowledge is lost.
This archive will enable those researchers, academic or otherwise, to access knowledge on the art of that era, information on Apartheid and the arts, and The Market Theatre in general. There is no other archive that specifically addresses performance during the Apartheid era. It is thus vitally important that this history is readily available to anyone who might need to access it. It is also imperative that this history is recorded before it is lost. Innovation lies in the content of the archive.

The collection contains documents generated by the South African Police, particularly its Security Branch, mainly before 1994.

Included are amongst other:
Reports relating to organisations and alliances; Information and reports relating to regions, including former Homelands and Namibia; Files on individual activists; Reports and memoranda relating to education, including Universities; Reports and memoranda produced by various Police sections and departments; Internal Police guidelines and methodologies.

Contains correspondence, circulars, telegrams, orders, duty and occurrence books, patrol reports, case dockets, charge sheets, lost and found lists, returns and statements.
Subjects are poll and dog tax, stock disease and theft, crime, registration of voters, agricultural census and the administration of the police at Van Reenen.

The collection amongst other important documents includes Constitutions, Policy and Procedure Documents, Resolutions, Financial Documents and Reports, Meeting Minutes, Conferences, Summits, Workshops, Internal Correspondence, Press Releases and Reports of the Teachers' Union.

One photo of a large Shembe gathering, with some groups in traditional dress, others in white robes and others in colonial type outfits. Location and date of the photo unknown.

The African Initiated Church was founded by Isaiah Shembe in 1910. It is seen as a mixture of Zulu tradition and Christianity, which reveres Shembe as an African Messiah and emphasizes the Ten Commandments. The church has two main large gatherings, one being a pilgrimage to Nhlangagazi at the beginning of each year, and the other being a month-long celebration near Eshowe in October.