This collection consists of discussion and policy papers, memoranda, statements about transformation and crises in tertiary education.

The collection includes records of the SANCO Civic Organisation itself which varies from Correspondence to Operational files and includes educational programmes and its co-operative organisations. Political Party collaborations are also represented in this collection together with case specific issues such as Electricity and Water provision and so are governmental correspondence and related records. Because of the focus of regional divisions, the regions have been separated accordingly.

Sally Sealey came to South Africa in the late 1960s, and got involved in student politics in the early 1980s. During her stay, she came into contact with the residents of Thokoza and adjacent townships. This area was the epicenter of violence in Gauteng, with a recorded 3500 murders in the first three and half years of the 1990s. She worked very closely with Self-Defence Units (SDUs) in the area. So she could speak as a good authority on matters of human rights violations especially in the Thokoza area, having been involved in the daily life of the people there.

With the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), she became a member attached to the Johannesburg Regional Office's Investigative Unit. Specifically she adopted a defendants' position, helping some of the suspects to apply for amnesty. She was the main external link in applying for amnesty for suspects who had formerly been members of the SDUs unit in the East Rand. She encouraged and helped the suspects to fill in Amnesty applications.

As a result of her experience, this collection includes unique records regarding the processes and information generated during the proceedings of the TRC.

Almost all the items in this collection are copies of posters utilised in the book "Images of Defiance". The majority of slides in this collection correspond to actual posters included in the SAHA Poster Collection (AL2446).

This collection consists of over 4000 unique posters dating mostly from the 1980s-1990s.
Duplicate copies of many of these posters exist. 327 posters from the collection have been
reproduced in the book "Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s" by
Ravan Press. A considerable number of posters also feature in the STP publication "Red on
black: The story of the South African poster movement". Some of the posters are also available
in slides (See AL2432) and digital format. The collection includes a large number of posters from
the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), the United Democratic Front (UDF) and also includes
posters relating to women, youth, AIDS, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) as well
Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) struggles.

This is a large and extensive collection, which had been donated to the periodicals section of the University of the Witwatersrand's Library. The following periodicals remain in the South African History Archive (SAHA) holdings: 'ANC Weekly News briefings', 1979-1984; 'Workers' Unity' (Organ of South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU)) Nos. 1-28, 38, 40, 41, 67 and 70 and a special issue on JB Marks 'Resister: Journal of the Committee of Southern African War Resistance (COSAWR) March 1979-June 1990.

Not all the photographs in the SAHA Collections form part of the Original SAHA Photograph Collection. In order to retain the provenance of photographs from other collections, these photos have not been incorporated into the original photo collection, but have kept the call numbers of the collections to which they belong, such as AL2424 (JODAC), AL3051 (Hilda & Rusty Bernstein), AL2564 (Five Freedoms Forum), AL2566 (PLANACT), AL2686 (The Indian Community in the Transvaal), AL2719 (Centre for South-South relations), AL2937, AL2991 (Patrick Fitzgerald), AL3158 (Michael Harmel) AL3265 (Zenzo Nkobi). However, because of their format, all the photographs are stored together.

The images in this collection have been digitized by Africa Media Online, a Pietermaritzburg based organisation.

The photographs have been arranged in sections 1-28 according to subject matter. Although the original classification has been retained, the subsections have been renumbered due to inconsistency of the old numbering system.

This oral history project was set up by the South African History Archive (SAHA) in 1990 after the unbanning of various political organisations with Tom Mathole as co-ordinator. The first step involved interviewing a selection of exiles that had returned to South Africa. This collection focuses on the circumstances leading up to exile, life in exile and the returnees' current perceptions of South Africa. The interviewees are: Angela Brown, Michael Kgoadi, Nontsikelelo Memela, Papi Moloto, Moosa Moolla, Selby Msimang, Sue Rabkin, Ngoako Ramathlodi, Pumla Williams, Bongiwe Njobe, Phola Mabizela and Soli Modise.

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 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.