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

Chandre Gould was the project's sole researcher. This collection comprises a complete set of the research records generated or acquired by her. The set in the form of photocopies, was donated to SAHA by the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) through Chandre Gould in February 2002. CCR organisational records related to the project are not part of the collection. CCR intends to publish a selection of the Project Coast material on the website of the International Security Network (Zurich).

Gould is a freelance researcher, and was contracted to the CCR at the time of the donation. She was an investigator with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from 1996 to 1999, with responsibility for the Commission's CBW investigation. Much of her TRC documentation was copied and brought into the project with TRC permission (see A1).

Project Coast documentation is numbered CBW1 - CBW144(gaps in these numbers do not reflect gaps in the documentation,rather problems with the original numbering system) Many of the Project Coast documents are in Afrikaans - Gould had these translated into English, and the translations are included with the documents.

The Wouter Basson trial was monitored by Marlene Burger. She contributed substantially to the collection of materials on the trial.

For more background information on the apartheid state's CBW programme Researchers are referred to two books published by Gould - South Africa's Apartheid Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme(with Peter Folb), and Secrets and Lies (with Marlene Burger).

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.

The collection of posters that Morice Smithers donated for the publication of "Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s" can be found in AL2446. Ephemera donated by Smithers (t-shirts, stickers and badges) can be found in AL2540.

This collection consists of books, audio/video tapes, photographs, long player records and T-shirts, all related to various solidarity movements for which Lucia Raadschelders worked.

The collection summarises the activities in which Raadschelders was involved during the years that she spent as an anti-apartheid activist, in Holland and in the Southern Africa Sub-region. These concern in particular, the things that she witnessed.

This collection consists of ten photographs of Patrick Fitzgerald, a demonstration and unidentified people. Two duplicates. NEGATIVES of all 10 in the Neg. file. These photographs are stored in the filing cabinet.

The collection spans the period when Vadi was mostly actively involved in SADTU, and holds correspondence, statements and memorandums of the Union as well as documentation of interactions with other organisations like COSATU and the UDF.

Although 65 interviews were conducted for this project, only 63 interviews are available, as two interviews were not recorded properly. Interview protocol differed slightly depending on the interviewer and when the interview was scheduled. In cases where questions in the general protocol were unrelated to the specific work of the person being profiled, questions more appropriate to the work of the individual were posed.

This collection is accessible at Historical Papers (HP) Archive as collection A2985. To consult this collection contact Historical Papers at University of the Witwatersrand. (http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/)

The following titles from this multi media collection are available:

Life in South Africa's Homelands (DT 1760 LIF)

The Redundant People (DT 1760 RED)

Going Home (DT 1756 GOI)

Pageview (DT 944.J6 PAR)

Maids and Madams (HD 8039.D5 MAI)

Mayfair (DT 944.A385 MAY)

Matiwane's Kop (DT 764.B2 MAT)

None But Ourselves (DT 962.7FRE)

The HAP also produced various publications which are available on microfiche.

This collection documents the African National Congress's (ANC) enquiry into three areas: Commission of Inquiry into Recent Developments in Angola; Commission of Inquiry Investigating the Death of Mzwakhe Ngwenya (Thami Zulu) and the Motsuenyane Commission on Treatment of ANC Prisoners.