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 consists of video material on various topics relating to the struggle of South Africa. These productions were put together by the apartheid government for the South African constituency and includes Die Bou van die Nasie (The Building of a Nation) and interviews with Nelson Mandela before his release from Pollsmoor Prison.

The materials that make up this collection cover the operations of the PWV ANC branch for the period 1990 to 1994.

The materials are all paper-based documents. Posters have been removed from the collection and form part of the Poster Collection of the South African History Archive (SAHA).

Hogan served the new post-Apartheid Parliament of the Republic of South Africa as an ANC Member of Parliament and as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Finance. She was also a council member of the Robben Island Museum.

The records on the relationship between the ANC and the United Democratic Front (UDF) document the period 1985 - when a state of emergency was declared by the Apartheid government - and 1990 when outlawed oppositional movements were unbanned and Nelson Mandela was released.

An in-depth understanding of this period as well as the nature of the relationship between the ANC and the UDF can be reached by consulting the main UDF collection (AL 2431) that covers the period 1983 - 1991.

An inventory of this collection is available. 3 Two posters - 1. 'The Story of the Peace Accord' and 2. 'Female Political Prisoners: What are their Conditions?' - are part of the overall SAHA Poster Collection classified under the collection number AL 2446

This collection includes an information bulletin, publications, stickers, pamphlets, posters, T-shirts and other miscellaneous items. Most of the material is in German.

This collection of copies of reports of the Office of the Auditor-General falls into two categories, namely the Report of the Auditor-General on the Accounts of the TRC covering the periods 1995 – 1996 and 1996 – 1997, as well as the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statement of the TRC for the periods 1997 – 1998 and for the years ending 31 March 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.These Reports are public records and are freely available in the public domain.

The Office of the Auditor-General donated them to the South African History Archive to promote transparency.

Apart from the hard copies available to researchers and users of the South African History Archive, the reports can be accessed on the website of the Office of the Attorney-General at: www.agsa.co.za/auditor_g.html

Both reports of the Auditor-General on the Accounts of the TRC highlighted problems that indicated unforeseen challenges to the operations of a truth commission of the nature of South Africa's TRC: there had been no precedence from which the Commission could draw when dealing with fiscal procedures and controls.

The audit of the Commission's report for the period 1995 to 1996 was discussed by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee and found to be wanting with regard to its financial controls.

This included problems such as failure to comply with tender board regulations, salaries and increases in salaries of Commissioners and dealing with donations according to regulations set by National Treasury. Corrective action was taken and reviewed in the audit for the following financial year.

The Auditor-General issued a qualified TRC account audit for the period 1996 to 1997 because the review of the corrective action taken after the first audit indicated inadequate compliance with legislative and policy requirements, some of which had been marked in the prior report, namely, compliance with State Tender Board and State Expenditure regulations. According to a public statement by the chief executive officer, the problem lies more with the new and developing fiscal challenges presented to the TRC, which were introduced in the financial period under review, than with misappropriation of funds or unauthorized expenditure.

However, apart from the deficient internal checking and control measures of the TRC, the Commission's financial record was marred by the misuse of credit cards by Commissioners as well as by a few of its senior staff members.

After intervention and corrective action by the CEO, the money thus misused was repaid and the affected members of the TRC returned their credit cards to the Commission. On 1 July 1998 the CEO of the TRC issued a detailed statement on the audit report.

A separate statement was issued on the use of official credit cards. For further information see the relevant years in 'In the media' :www.doj.gov.za

There is no indication in the records that these problems continued into the following years under review.

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 African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was re-established on 27 October 1990 in Soweto. The South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) and the ANC Youth Section, which had operated in exile, merged at this launch. The main task of the Youth League was to mobilise all sectors of the youth into active participation in the struggle to secure democracy.

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.

Some access conditions apply to portions of the collection.

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

This collection consists of publications published by the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) and the graphic illustrator for the publications was Matthew Krause.

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).