The NZA was established on 24 January 1994 to fund political parties in South Africa prior to the first democratic elections. Funds from donors were channelled through the Netherlands to support capacity building for South African political parties. The Dutch political parties were the CDA, PvdA, VVD, D66, GroenLinks, SGP, GPV and RPF. Much of the funding assisted South African political parties to participate more effectively in the 1994 and subsequent elections. The intention was to foster democratisation in South Africa to create an efficient and lasting multi-party political system.
During the years the Foundation was active, discussions regarding the scope of its activities were undertaken and a working group to investigate this was established. It was decided that its work should be extended to Mozambique and documentation about the extension of the NZA work to Mozambique is included.
The NZA programme ended on 1 January 2001 and was replaced by a new organisation, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD). The new institution will enable broader assistance to political parties in the so-called young democracies.
The NZA material is mostly in Dutch, particularly that of NZAs boards. The material has been sorted according to subject areas and business functions. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports, minutes and working documents have not been separated.
