While the Brian Currin Collection is a private collection, the records do give substantial insight into the professional life of the donor. As a private collection it is incomplete in the sense that a number of items that were regarded as being too personal for the public domain were removed from the Collection. Some items were faxed transmissions and had faded to the point of being illegible.

These documents were disposed of, while those that had maintained a certain degree of legibility have been photocopied and form part of the collection. This was done in collaboration with Currin himself.

The processor of this Collection was given several lever arch files of documents. After a number of bouts of sorting, the records were divided into three discrete groups:

Personal letters, which provide insight into personal and working relationships with individuals and organisations

Diary files that covers events over a period of 7 years, from 1987 to 1993

Subject files including topics such as: Political prisoners and Indemnity

The records are paper-based records and comprise correspondence, diary entries, invitations to events, programmes of conferences and the like, newspaper clippings and cards. However, an audio cassette entitled: 'Diakonia Breakfast Briefing 4/8/94. Brian Currin on the Truth Commission,' forms part of an otherwise entirely paper-based collection. [Ethel appears to have misplaces this cassette as it is not in the boxes.]

As the largest part of the collection comprises 'diary files' consisting of multiple types of documents - traditional diary entries, letters, newspaper articles, drafts of addresses and press statements - the methodology employed was to arrange and classify the records/records accumulations strictly chronologically - but taking into account how the donor had arranged his documents in the lever arch files.

Some records are not dated. These have been identified as such and have been arranged in the order and as part of the fonds which Currin himself had created when compiling his diary. This methodology applies to the letters as well. (In some instances Currin placed newspaper articles in his 'Letters' lever arch file).

In cases where it might be reasonably presumed that a record had been erroneously dated, this circumstance was indicated as such. In some cases the archivist undertook research to establish when certain undated records may have been created in that particular form. In these instances errors may have crept in.

This collection was donated by Dr Jill Gerber to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It documents the research made by Dr Gerber whilst writing up her MA in Overseas Archive Study during the period 1986 to 1992. Notebooks and correspondence outline the details of the research process.

The collection is made up of records that provided material for 'The Sanctions Handbook' as well as records from studies that were commissioned by the Commonwealth, on how best to handle the sanctions saga. The collection also comprises records from the Southern Africa Development Coordination Council (SADCC) region as whole dating as far back as its creation. The collection includes correspondence, speeches, press releases, reports, communiques, memoranda, policy documents, articles, books, newspapers, newspaper cuttings and miscellaneous records.

The records in this collection were collected during Klaaren's participation in ODAF and the Open Democracy Working Group. Klaaren has donated these records with a view to opening some of the history of the processes underlying the drafting of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

The records cover three periods of the drafting process of freedom of information legislation in South Africa: the period of constitutional drafting in which the idea of the Bill was introduced (1992-1994); the periods of presidential drafting and ODAF (1994-1998); and the period of the legislative drafting of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (1998-2000).

The collection is made up of documents relating to the Sub-council of Foreign Affairs of the Transitional Executive Council. Includes rich documentation of the efforts of the Transitional Executive Council to secure cooperation from international governments and bodies as well as former Homelands in the transition to Democracy in 1994.

Materials collected from TRC Archival Audit.

The TRC Archival Audit

SAHA and Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand have embarked on a project to locate and retrieve records relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). The project entailed conducting an archival audit of all existing TRC records in order to identify and locate documentation in danger of being lost.

In the process of conducting the archival audit, SAHA and HP located many collections from individuals and organizations that participated in the TRC process. Selections from these materials as well as TRC related material found in the freedom of Information Collection and other pre-existing SAHA and HP collections, were digitized and can be accessed online at http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/.

A guide to archival resources relating to South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission can also be found at: http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/trc_directory.pdf

The records accumulations that make up this collection are divided into two discrete archival groups.

The first group comprises records that document Amnesty International's immediate response to the TRC.

The second group is a detailed index of AI's archive of published materials and reports on South Africa that was used by numerous individuals and organisations for researching and compiling their respective submissions to the TRC.

Materials collected from TRC Archival Audit.

The TRC Archival Audit

Between 2003 and 2006, SAHA and Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand embarked on a project to locate, retrieve and make available records relating to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). The project entailed conducting an archival audit of all existing TRC records in order to identify and locate documentation in danger of being lost.

In the process of conducting the archival audit, SAHA and HP located many collections from individuals and organizations that participated in the TRC process, including this collection. Selections from these materials as well as TRC related material found in the freedom of Information Collection and other pre-existing SAHA and HP collections, were digitized and can be accessed online at http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/

A guide to archival resources relating to South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission can also be found at http://www.saha.org.za/pdf/trc_directory.pdf

The collection includes the printouts of Chantelle Wyley's article regarding the attempts by Chief Buthelezi to get Mzala\'s book: Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda, taken off the shelves of university libraries.

The collection includes mission statements of a few of the service organisations that participated in the struggle against apartheid, together with official and unofficial publications by the International and Defence Aid Fund (IDAF).

The collection comprises digital and physical material. Hard copy items are marked with a single asterisk (*); digital items with two asterisks (*) and items that appear in both digital and physical form with a single + two asterisks symbol (+**) Some parts of the digital collection are located on CD's.