The collection contains the interviews which were conducted from 2004-2012 as part of a unique and pioneering Archival oral history project undertaken by the Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand.

The project collected personal experiences, perceptions and stories from former members of the Self Defence Units (SDUs) from Thokoza and Katlehong on the East Rand (Gauteng) and former members of the South African Defence Force (SADF), mainly ex-32 Battalion, ex-31 Battalion, Koevoet and from other permanent force and conscripts.

The collection of photographs was made available by Patrick Khoza and contains photographs taken by his brother, photographer Joseph Gogo Khoza.

Includes Ms letter, of a personal nature, undated but probably about Christmas 1837, to Jane from a friend. Also an eyewitness account of the massacre in 1838 of Piet Retief's party of Boers at Dingaan's kraal, where Mrs. Bird was one of a party, including the Rev. Francis Owen, who intended to establish a mission station. The account was narrated and signed by her on 6 Nov. 1877 at Klipplastfontein and witnessed by Charles Tobias and Charles Orpen.

Draft memorial from James Chapman (1831-1872, explorer and hunter) to H.E. Sir P.E. Wodehouse, Governor of the Cape, undated (water-mark 1863), explaining the purpose and extent of his travels and requesting a civil service post; short Ms (1p.) by Chapman on his travels with a poem on the reverse; letter from the Royal Geographical Society, 11 Dec. 1867, electing him a fellow.

Also obituaries of Henry Samuel Chapman (1834-1922, brother of James) and of Edward Henry Chapman (1885-1945, Bechuanaland pioneer).

'Certificate of discharge and character' of Portuguese seaman (Antonia Bonasia?)

Headmaster of Wynberg School

'Memorandum of the claims of J. McNaughton, Master of the Govt. School at Wynberg, to increase of salary', Wynberg

Africana collector

Letters from J.G. Gubbins, mainly to his sister Bertha Tufnell (née Gubbins), 1900-1935, with a gap between 1924 and 1931; wills and testaments, genealogical notes and photographs of the Gubbins Family; letters of Mona Gubbins (wife) and Bertha Tufnell; articles by John Gubbins and Bertha Tufnell; diary kept by Richard Rolls; Gubbins in the South African War 1899-1902; daily diary kept by Bertha Tufnell on a world cruise with Gubbins in 1932, trying to replace the Africana collection destroyed by fire at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The papers relate to Gubbins' experiences in Johannesburg 1902-1903, farming at Ottoshoop in the Western Transvaal, discovery and mining of fluorspar and the building up of a great Africana collection. Other subjects are theosophy, diamond and gold mining, Chinese labour on the mines, description of Bechuanaland and Rhodesia in 1906 and the 1914 Rebellion.

Correspondents include Gen. Louis Botha, Flinders Petrie and Gen J.C. Smuts.