Handwritten diary of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876-1932), interpreter, journalist, author and politician. The diary was written during the Siege of Mafeking, which took place during the South African War of 1899-1902. It contains the only known surviving written account of the Siege by an African. The first entry is dated Sunday, 29 October 1899, and the last entry Friday, 30March 1900.

The diary makes reference to entries in the Mafeking Mail, a newspaper which was published as a Special Siege Slip during the Siege of Mafeking from 1 November 1899 - 31 May 1900.

Further reference needs to be made to the Centenary Edition of "The Mafeking Diary of Sol T. Plaatje", edited by John Comaroff and Brian Willan with Solomon Molema and Andrew Reed, published in 1999:

The Centenary edition has been greatly improved from its first edition, providing the historical context around the diary, Sol Plaatje's life and the Siege of Mafeking during the Anglo-Boer war. At the same time it has included parts which the diary omits, and it explains circumstances and historical events around the diary:

1) A letter to which Sol Plaatje refers as "public property" in his entry of the 8 December 1899 in the text of his diary, and which he meant to reproduce, but which he omits thereafter. The letter was written by Colonel Baden-Powell to General Snyman, dated 8 December 1899, and it was reproduced in the Mafeking Mail on the 11 December 1899.

2) A document by Colonel Baden-Powell dealing with the writer's threat to penalize 'grumblers' when their compensation claims were considered after the siege, published in the Mafeking Mail, 29 March. The editors of the book chose to reproduce the document in full, following Plaatje's entry of Friday 30 March 1900, where he made reference to the document.

3) The entry for Friday 30 March 1900 is the last of Plaatje's diary. The editors of the book mention some further 20 sheets of blank paper remaining in the notebook in which the diary was written, which are no longer present.

4) The Introduction and Endnotes in the book mentions earlier notes, written on loose paper. One of these notes which has survived exists in the collection A979 of Silas Molema and Solomon Plaatje, in Aa3, General correspondence, 1916-1920. It is part of a page which contains a correspondence presumably written to Silas Molema, dated 28 November 1919, written in ink. The part related to Plaatje's notebook is written in pencil, and it has the page number 7 written above the text, which reads as follows: ".... applied these remarks in order to pull them together a bit. 'It will take them 12 months, shelling every day to completely destroy a town like [Mafeking]. They will only knock a house or two down. I saw some good rocks down at your place and if you remained behind them you are perfectly safe.' We spent some of the 48 hours in sleep, when it was night, and the balance in preparing shelters."

5) The last entry of 30 March 1900 is followed by a letter, which the editors of the book explain to be the copy of a letter from Plaatje to Isaiah Bud-M'belle, Plaatje's brother-in-law. Although undated it is said to have been written at the end of February 1900.

There are a further 3 pages which cannot be related to the diary but seem to originate from the same notebook.

'Red Rand: drama in three acts', typescripts, 44 pages

"The literary works of the foreign missionaries of the Moravian Church", by The Rev. G.Th. Reichelt, of Herrnhut, Saxony.

Translated and annotated by Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz.

Lists printed works of the Moravian Mission in South Africa, mainly produced at the Mission's printing press in Genadendal, „Genadendalse Drukkery“, one of the first printing presses publishing in Afrikaans.

The collection relates to the events surrounding the court case MKWAYI & Others, often referred to as "Little Rivonia", as well as the arrest and trial of Nandha Naidoo in the Supreme Court of South Africa. It contains copies of Nandha Naidoo's Security Branch police file and the statement he made to his lawyers.
Also included a copy of the police list of items found at 21 Pearce Street, Doornfontein, the address at which Mac Maharaj stayed at the time and which was published in a book by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation entitled "Men of Dynamite".
Also included is a recollection of events by Nandha Naidoo entitled "The benefit of hindsight: the challenge of untangling history from legend". Here he relates to the circumstances which led to his arrest and a review of Mac Maharaj's references to him in the former memoirs written by Padraig O'Malley.

Further included an Open Letter to Mac Maharaj, 27 August 2019, and published here in digital format.

Reference is made to collection no. & item AD1901 / 35.2 State v. Nandhagopaul Naidoo in the Supreme Court of South Africa (Witwatersrand Local Division). Records of proceedings, judgement, 1965.

Further reference is made to collection AK2520 Mkwayi & Others, Trial records, 1964, which has been digitised and is fully available online.

Ratified deed, with the signatures of W.W. Jones, Bp. of Cape Town and Metropolitan, N.J. Merriman, Bp. of Grahamstown, and others.

Chief Fire Officer, Benoni

Scrap book containing press clippings, letters, photographs, programmes, election pamphlets and personal documents. Refers mainly to fire-fighting, affairs of East Rand and Benoni in particular, boxing and politics.

Kept by Sophy Gray, the wife of Robert Gray, first Bishop of Cape Town, this volume contains the chronicle of the Province, together with an index. The entries were done in fine calligraphy.

Trade Unions, Community Organisations and politics: a local case study on the East Rand, 1980-1986.

Unpublished BA Honours Dissertation submitted at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In her diary she describes social activities in India and at the Cape of Good Hope. 44 pages relate to the Cape, where she was married on 19 April 1836, and where she and her husband stayed for two periods from 22 April to the 22 September 1836 and again from 9 February 1839 to the 17 September 1840.

Paramount chief of the Pondos

Statement in Zulu, to the government of Natal, signed with Faku's mark.