The collection contains the documents relating to the activities of The Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa, for the period of 1996 to 2005, and an addition in 2019.
The records include information about a number of projects run by various South African Non-Governmental Organizations with the financial support of the Foundation. Each Project contains a set of documents relating to all the activities carried out including the proposal and the outcomes.
An addition to the collection was received in 2019, containing the records of the Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) of the University of Cape Town.

The Logbooks of the New Kleinfontein Company contain statistics o the mining, milling, cyanide and assay departments, steaming stations and surface haulage. Also returns of unskilled labour and drilling returns for Black and Chinese workers, European time register, 1917-1923, further records of cost of machine drilling and breaking rock 1908, and the distribution of manager's cash, 1905.

The collection contains letter-books, with copies of correspondence and notes, and 5 loose letters, on the education of slaves, paper currency, William Parker's party of 1820 settlers, the 1825 Commission of Enquiry into the offices of Chief and Deputy Secretaries and Bird's removal from office.

Correspondents include Earl Bathurst, Earl of Caledon, Sir R. Donkin, Col. J. Graham, Rev. M. Hough, W. Parker, T. Seton and Lord C.H. Somerset. Also 5 notebooks, mainly on religious topics, manuscripts, a printed obituary of Bird and 'A concise narrative or memoir to serve to discriminate the principal occurrences which have brought the Cape of Good Hope into notice from the year 1820 to 1827 by an observer' by C.C. Bird, transcribed by Iris Bird, 1970 (100l.)

66 notebooks containing his diary from 1888-1959. While primarily a record of personal and family events, the diaries include references to political and social events of the day. Also 10 photograph albums of tours by Hills 1936-1956 to various parts of the world; correspondence with family, friends and others on his journalistic career and on subjects such as religion, education and the labour movement. Correspondents include Bishop G. Clayton, J. Keir Hardie, Sir R. Jones, Bishop A.B.L. Karney, Sir E. Oppenheimer and L. Weinthal.

Also personal documents, printed items and notebooks.

The Brooke letters, No. 4050 IV in the Oppenheimer Library, were written by Robert Brooke, Governor of St. Helena, to Earl Macartney, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.

The letters show that Brooke felt feelings of warm friendship for Earl Macartney, to whom he acknowledged a debt of gratitude for the interest he had shown in his affairs.

As governors of neighbouring territories both men had problems in common and were able to assist each other. When Macartney was very short of specie at the Cape, Brooke was able to raise a private loan of 2500 to help him out of his difficulties.

Amongst the subjects discussed in the letters were the taking and future government of the Cape, the plan to attack Spanish South America, the progress of the war against the French, the convoying of East India Company ships and the seizure of neutral ships which are trading illegally.

This collection consists of correspondence, publications, newspaper clippings, photographs, articles, manuscripts, drawings and miscellaneous items.

A substantial proportion of the documents are in Tswana. The Rolong tribal papers were easy to identify as most are on paper with the tribal letterhead. Most of Plaatje's correspondence is in Tswana, and as he discusses important developments in South African history, the correspondence had to be translated. Thus a Calendar could be compiled to describe the documents. The Ca1endar format has also been used to describe the papers of Chief Montshiwa.

In the body of the inventory names and places are spelled as they appear in the documents, and because of the inconsistency in Tswana orthography the same name may have various spellings. The term "native" instead of African or Black reflects the usage current at the time, and has been retained when describing documents. All references to the Rolong refer to the Tehidi branch of the tribe, and where other branches are meant they are referred to specifically e.g. Rapulana Rolong.

In the index (unpublished) modern spelling of names has been used, thus Montshiwa and not Montsioa. Where there are various spellings the one most commonly used has been chosen and the variations in spelling appear in brackets after the chosen form. If a person is usually referred to by his English first name, the Tswana name appears in brackets after the English names, thus Chief Wessels (Boccie) Montshiwa. It is a Tswana custom to refer to a person by the name of his father thus Seetsele Modiri Molema is sometimes referred to as Silas Modiri Molema.

It is also customary to call a woman after the name of her first born thus Elizabeth Plaatje is often called Ma Sainty, Sainty being the nickname for St Leger, her eldest son. Married women have been indexed under their married name with a reference from their maiden name. Place names are indexed under the English or Afrikaans name rather than the Tswana name and the modernised spelling of the name as used at the time of the compilation of the documents is preferred, thus Bechuanaland and not Botswana. In general, references to Bechuanaland in the documents do not differentiate between British Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate, therefore most references in the index will be to Bechuanaland unless a document refers specifically to either of these territories. The prefixes from the names of Bantu tribes have been dropped in accordance with current usage but have been retained in the body of the inventory, thus Rolong in the index and not Barolong.

Many of the people have been difficult to identify and family relationships are often difficult to establish. Therefore in order to increase the value of the index elementary biographical information has been included. In general, R F Hunnisett's Indexing for editors (British Records Association, 1972) has been consulted.

The papers cover a wide range of subjects such au history and local history in particular, politics, ethnology and social anthropology and Black literature and journalism. The papers of Chief Montshiwa document the encroachment of the Boers, the Warren Expedition and the annexation of British Bechuanaland in 1885. Others document the South African War, in particular the siege of Mafeking in which the Rolong played an important role; the formation of the South African Native National Congress; the Native Land Act (1913) and the delegations to England in 191L and 1919 to protest against the legislation and in particular Plaatje's participation. General tribal administration is reflected in the documents, both by the chiefs and the British (later South African) government officials. Prom the ethno-sociological point of view the papers represent a bourgeois, educated and Westernised.

Black family. The papers are also of literary interest, both Plaatje and S M Molema having made significant contributions to South African Black literature:

I would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Tim Couzens and Brian Willan. Mr Couzens was able to obtain information from living members of the Molema and Plaatje families, which helped to identify individuals and photographs. In order to establish complicated family relationships he has compiled a family tree of the Molema family (p.xiii, based on information obtained from Mr Morara T Molema, in interviews which took place on the 2-3 June 1978.

The following abbreviations have been used:

SANNC - South African Native National Congress.