The Mafela Trust collection consists of paper-based materials, digital materials, photographs, oral history interviews (audio cassettes and Hi8 video cassettes), and VHS video material.

The original order in which materials were received was not retained. A discussion with the Mafela Trust's national coordinator revealed that no proper filing system was in place in the office of origin, and his subsequent artificial order (defined by sections Vatican A, B, C etc.) did not allow for effective and systematic arrangement and retrieval of archival materials. (Meticulous record-keeping allows for reversal of current arrangement). The current system of arrangement embarks on an attempt to reflect the organisation's developmental history in terms of its aims and objectives, and thus allows for more effective access to the materials.

The paper-based and digital collections of the Mafela Trust archives have been arranged as two separate series. Although some duplication of documents exist, especially with materials created around 2000 onwards, the first series of paper-based materials contain archives that were generally created prior to 2000, and includes a fairly large number of handwritten and manuscript material. 49 items (625pp) from this series have been digitised to facilitate access. The digital collection commences circa late 1990s/2000+. It should be noted that the arrangement of the paper-based collection does not correspond with that of the digital collection.

Photographs from Gille De Vlieg's collection AL3274 were used in the "Entering Tembisa Exhibition that took place as a part of the project on the 24th September 2011.

Researchers can request unedited transcripts of the interviews from the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits University directly.

This collection consists mainly of learner and educator portfolios submitted for the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 competitions by province, and relating administrative material. Some portfolios include CDs, DVDs and photographs. A number of gaps have been identified in the collection that has been donated so far. The material from the 2006 competition shows an absence of learner and educator portfolios from the KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape provinces. However, the absence of these portfolios could also indicate that no portfolios were submitted from these provinces for that year. 2006 and 2007 competitions lack administrative material. No educator portfolios were received from any of the provinces for the 2008 competition. The list of award winners from the different provinces in this category is proof that these portfolios do exist.

The collection is arranged according to the chapter structure of The Dream Deferred. Written in eight parts The Dream Deferred roughly spans a century, from the early 1900s to 2007 when the book was published.

Interview transcripts are grouped with relevant chapters and correlate to interviews recorded on audio casette / CD / mini disc classified under ‘X’.

The De Wet Potgieter collection consists of three series:

The oral history interviews with individuals in military intelligence include the audio interviews (MP3), transcripts and translated transcripts (Afrikaans and English) of interviews, and interviewee release forms. De Wet Potgieter conducted these interviews on behalf of SAHA in 2009-2010 as a contracted employee. SAHA is the copyright holder for these materials.

The document collection, relating to the activities of Military Intelligence and the Security Branch of the SAP during the apartheid era and extremist right wing organisations in South Africa (1980s-1990s), contains top secret and confidential documents, booklets, pamphlets, information sheets, correspondence, notes, including explanatory notes/narratives by the donor for each of the sub-series. Faxed items in the collection have been photocopied and/or scanned due to the fading nature of this format. Photographs contained in an Appeal document and 6 videos form part of this series.

The Doug Lee photographic material constitutes a selection of digitised images of negatives from the photographer's collection that is most pertinent to the De Wet Potgieter collection as a whole.

Due to the nature of this collection a substantial portion of the material is in Afrikaans. These are indicated in the inventory.

The first series of oral history interviews has been arranged chronologically.

The second series of documents came to SAHA already sorted by the donor, and this greatly assisted with the final arrangement of the materials as the order defined by the donor was mostly retained. In 2014 De Wet Potgieter added documents relating to the assassination of former Swedish prime minister Olof Palme to his collection and these documents are archived as sub series B1.5.6.

The Doug Lee photographic material consists of negatives stored in 6 files, 1 box and 1 envelope. Although the photographer filed these negatives according to the dates on which the photographs were taken, the dates of events overlap in some of the files, e.g. File 1 (1993-1994), File 2 (1994-2003), File 3 (1997), and File 4 (1996-1999), File 5 (2000-2003), File 6 (2002-2003). Only those negatives containing images relevant to the De Wet Potgieter collection as a whole were selected for digitisation, and only those are described in the inventory. However, the numbering of the selected images indicates that these images form part of a larger collection of Doug Lee materials.

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.

The collection consists of audio interviews, video footage, transcripts and project specific documentation.

The collection consists of black and white digital images, sorted by year from 1983 to 1989.

Gille De Vlieg started her photographic career in 1983, and this collection documents her journey through the different provinces of South Africa (North West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal) to explore and capture events and issues as they happened. She has been meticulous in dating her photographs, so events unfold chronologically through her lens.

She manages to reflect the tranquility of typical day to day life in a serene rural setting, in contrast to the more harsh township lifestyle, against the stark contrast of the sometimes violent political activities of the era. The repetition of certain themes through the years, such as land removals, mass funerals, political protests, etc. further strengthens her body of work as a document to the turbulent political past. Capturing gender and lifestyle issues, for example depicting women embroidering, making batik patterns on cloth, pottery, basket-making, always remain an important part of her work throughout.

Each year, however, is marked by specific political, cultural or other events:-

1983 is a small collection of 7 photo’s of rural lifestyle in the mostly North West province.

1984 focuses on the political activities of the UDF, Cosas and ECC, while 1985, still focusing on the UDF, also shifts to detentions, police brutality and the Mandela Rally in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

1986 is dominated by images of the anti-harassment campaign, death penalty protest, Black Sash activities, and protests against the anti-incorporation into Bophutatswana. Many prominent people feature in these photos, amongst others, David Webster, Winnie Mandela, Sheena Duncan, Frank Chikane, Beyers Naude, Albertina Sisulu, Helen Joseph and Helen Suzman.

1987 contains a smaller number of photographs, and focuses mostly on the effect of the apartheid land removals on women’s everyday existence. Prison releases show photos of activist lawyer Priscilla Jana, Epinette and Govan Mbeki, Albertina Sisulu.

1988 brings an interesting angle to the collection as De Vlieg captures Afrikaner nationalism in all its glory during the 150th Celebration of the Groot Trek (unfortunately not in this collection), and Day of the Vow (Gelofte Dag) celebrations at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. With people like Betsie Verwoerd, PW Botha, FW de Klerk, Pik Botha, Eugene Terreblanche on his horse, she catches the essence of the Afrikaner of the day! She also photographs the AWB swinging their flag with a swastika against the Voortrekker Monument as backdrop.This year also features a large number of photos of the REEA Care Centre.

1989 contains a small collection of photos of street scenes in Harare, Zimbabwe and of Namibia, including Herero and Himba people. Back in South Africa the images of this year focus on street children, evicted and homeless people, and township lifestyle of Tembisa and Eureka, and the ANC Welcome Home Rally for Robben Island leaders.

19 photographs taken by De Vlieg in the township of Tembisa in 1984-1990 were added to the collection in 2011. These photographs were part of an exhibition 'Entering Tembisa - an oral and photographic exploration of the community' which was hosted in the Tembisa West Library to celebrate Heritage Day 2011. This exhibition forms part of an oral history and archival collection project on Tembisa, conducted by SAHA in 2010 and 2011.

While Gille de Vlieg is responsible for the digitisation of some of her photographs, the majority was digitised by Africa Media Online (AMO), a Pietermaritzburg based organisation, in 2009.

Materials comprising the John Harris collection consist of Harris's police docket, trial records, prison and media files donated by his son David Wolfe; his Security Legislation Directorate (SLD) file obtained through a Promotion to Access of Information Act (PAIA) request, and a collection of letters donated by Jane Harris. Materials in each series have been described on item level.

The materials contained in the police docket kept on John Harris (series A), the John Harris trial records (series B), his court exhibit file (series C), prison files (series D and D1) and media file (series E) form the bulk of the collection. Copies of the police investigation file and the court transcripts were obtained from the SAPS Museum in Pretoria. The prison files and court exhibit file were obtained from the Department of Correctional Services Archive at Pretoria Central Prison. Most of the documents are photocopies of the original documentation. Materials in the court exhibit file and the two prison files have been digitised by Specialised Archival Solution in 2009 and are only available in digital format.

Materials obtained from the SAPS Museum and the archive of the Department of Correctional Services were secured by SAHA on behalf of John Harris's family, and donated to SAHA by his son, David Wolfe in 2009.

A copy of John Harris's Security Legislation Directorate (SLD) file was released to SAHA by the National Archives in respect of PAIA request number 0064/NAR/2008, and is archived in the Freedom of Information Programme (FOIP) collection as AL2878_B1.3.6.9, and cross-referenced and described in series F of the John Harris collection.

Letters written by John Harris to his sister Jane whilst in prison (1964-1965) were donated by Jane Harris to SAHA. In 2014 Jane Harris requested the return of the original letters to the family. To replace the original letters she donated ring-bound photocopies of the letters. The photocopied letters are contained in series G.