Compiled by Dawie Bosch, a lawyer, this collection consists of three discrete archives groups. These groups document the process of formulating the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) and the legal battle for restitution of expropriated land by the Makuleke community. A collection of newspaper clippings and pamphlets, published in the wake of the announcement of the Tricameral Parliament forms the third group.

The South African History Archive (SAHA) and Historical Papers were approached by thirty seven people, who were imprisoned on 22 September 1981 and detained for anything from fourteen days to just under one year, to document and preserve their stories. The interviewees are: Cedric de Beer, Hannchen Koornhof, Maurice Smithers, Prema Naidoo, Norman Manoim, Caroline Cullinan, Emma Mashinini, Merle Favis, Pravin Gordhan, Audrey Coleman, Gavin Anderson, Barbara Klugman, Cedric Maysom, Kathy Satchwell, Alan Fine, Monty Narsoo and Joanne Yawitch. A number of the detainees (Rob Adam, Barbara Hogan, Alan Fine, Hannchen Koornhof, Prema Naidoo and Shireesh Nanabhai) went on trial and, in the case of Hogan and Adam, were jailed until the release of political prisoners in 1990. Neil Aggett died while in detention. Whilst other people were detained during this period, the detainees listed here were picked for their links to one another.

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.

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).

The collection includes publications, pamphlets, posters, flyers, booklets, tapes, videocassettes, and proposals for voter education.

The collection is divided into two parts: A. Kempton Park Negotiations and B. Transitional Executive Council. This reflects the two capacities in which the records were generated or assembled by Khalik Mayet, and the fact that they were donated to SAHA by him in 1993 and 1994 as two distant records accumulations (acquisitions 93-006,94-004).

The conference proceedings comprised a keynote address by Justice Edwin Cameron (Supreme Court Judge active in the fight for the rights of gay and HIV positive South Africans), parallel sessions (totalling 26 over three days) and panel discussions on Media and HIV/AIDS and Prevention and Behaviour change. The conference proceedings have been arranged alphabetically according to the name of the presenter. Sound recordings of some of the proceedings are included. The posters were used for the protest march held in Pretoria as part of the Treatment Action Campaign, after which they were on display at Wits to coincide with the Conference and are placed with the Poster Collection (AL2446). The ephemera were also on exhibition at Wits as part of the "Living Openly Exhibition" and are placed with the Ephemera Collection (AL2540 - A268)

The Freedom of Information Programme (FOIP) collection comprises copies of materials released pursuant to the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). The collection includes apartheid era security establishment records, documents created by the South African government bodies and agencies post- apartheid, and documents from several private bodies. It also contains documentation of the collection process. Special Projects, undertaken by the South African History Archive (SAHA) to test the parameters of freedom of information in South Africa, include materials relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in particular sensitive materials; gays in the apartheid military; South African Defence Force (SADF), the apartheid government's nuclear weapon programme; HIV/AIDS policies and implementation thereof of private bodies and parastatals; the health and environmental impacts of the nuclear energy industry, and documents relating to migration to and within the RSA.

This collection includes Spark: 3, 24 January and 21, 28 March and New Sjambok: photocopies: various dates from July-September 1931.

Photographs of the exhibition held at the University of the Witwatersrand in September 1991: "Art, Culture and Social Reality. The Indian Community in the Transvaal".

Catalogue available (kept with collection AL2467f). Organiser of the festival: Monique Vajifdar.

The exhibition consisted of historical photographs, artefacts and clothing.

The photographs were obtained from: The Local History Museum, Durban; the Africana Museum; the University of Durban-Westville. (Guide to the Documentation centre of the University of Durban-Westville is available).

Historical Papers does not have a complete set of all the photos used for the exhibition.