The South African History Archive (SAHA) and Historical Papers were approached by thirty seven people, who were imprisoned on 22 September 1981 and detained for anything from fourteen days to just under one year, to document and preserve their stories. The interviewees are: Cedric de Beer, Hannchen Koornhof, Maurice Smithers, Prema Naidoo, Norman Manoim, Caroline Cullinan, Emma Mashinini, Merle Favis, Pravin Gordhan, Audrey Coleman, Gavin Anderson, Barbara Klugman, Cedric Maysom, Kathy Satchwell, Alan Fine, Monty Narsoo and Joanne Yawitch. A number of the detainees (Rob Adam, Barbara Hogan, Alan Fine, Hannchen Koornhof, Prema Naidoo and Shireesh Nanabhai) went on trial and, in the case of Hogan and Adam, were jailed until the release of political prisoners in 1990. Neil Aggett died while in detention. Whilst other people were detained during this period, the detainees listed here were picked for their links to one another.

Compiled by Dawie Bosch, a lawyer, this collection consists of three discrete archives groups. These groups document the process of formulating the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) and the legal battle for restitution of expropriated land by the Makuleke community. A collection of newspaper clippings and pamphlets, published in the wake of the announcement of the Tricameral Parliament forms the third group.

The collection documents Emilia Potenza's active role in NEUSA and includes correspondence, reports, newsletters, pamphlets, speeches, journals, minutes of meetings, press releases, articles and newspaper clippings. Postcards and stickers have been placed in the Ephemera Collection (AL2540) and the posters in the Poster Collection (AL2446).

This collection includes minutes of the Executive Council and Transvaal Regional Committee of SAITA; Lenasia Branch AGM papers (1975-1976), correspondence, memoranda and press cuttings relating to Y Eshak, E Seedat, MA Moosa, A Essop, V Poonan and Y Cajee. It also includes copies of the "Teacher's Chronicle".

This collection includes annual reports for 1994-1996, a research report and newsletter, pamphlets, stickers and postcards.

Some of the materials in this collection have duplicate hard copies, whereas most of these are also available in digital format.

All items from AL3051 The Bernstein Collection have been withdrawn from this collection. Contact Historical Papers.

The calendars that make the sub-series H was de-accessioned from SAHA Collection AL2446 (posters) and re-accessioned into this collection in November 2011.

The items in the ephemera collection has been arranged according to their format, for example: wardrobe items category "A"; banners category "B".

The collection includes a passive resistance certificate, banning orders imposed on Thandray and a profile by Ahmed Kathrada.

This collection includes minutes, reports, correspondence, and other documents relating to training projects in human relations in the workplace and management consultancy.

This collection consists of an essay entitled 'David Webster: A fearless defence of legality and due process?' by Glenda Webster. The essay, drawing on material from Glenda Webster's personal collection (not lodged with SAHA), records her experiences of David Webster's contribution to the work of the Detainees' Parents' Support Committee (DPSC), an organisation established in October 1981 to oppose and expose detention without trial in particular and repressive human rights violations in general.

The PTL collection is a small collection (0.5 linear metres). It has been arranged to reflect its main activities. This collection also reflects the increasing militancy of teacher organisations, and the impact the education crisis of the 1980s had on teachers.

Sections A - H deals with the PTL itself and its membership. As the PTL was formed under the state of emergency and operated under repressive conditions, there are no minutes of its executive meetings available as these were not kept. This phenomenon holds true for many organisations during this period who were opposed to the apartheid regime.

Section I - K deals with the whole teacher unity process at the National and the Southern Transvaal regional and NECC level at which the members of PTL were involved. This process culminated in the formation of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU). Copies of minutes as well as hand-written notes of some of these meetings provide interesting insight to the whole process of the formation of a national teacher organisation

Section L has files kept by the PTL on the various teachers organisations in the country. It was not uncommon for PTL executive members to also be members of some of these organisations, more notably TASA. Section M are miscellaneous documents relating to education that the PTL had collected in the course of its activities.