Fonds AD2021 - Security Trials, Court records

James Barron - In the Magistrate's Court for the Division of the Transvaal at Soweto. Background information. Court Records - Volume 1 (Pages 1-53). Court Records - Volume 2 (Pages 54-114). Court Records - Volume 6 (Pages 387-480). Court Records - Volume 8 (Pages 591-600). Court Records - Volume 10 (Pages 803-826). Court Records (Pages 1-200). Court Records (Pages 201-400). Court Records (Pages 401-600).
Results 1 to 10 of 909 Show all

Identity area

Reference code

ZA HPRA AD2021

Title

Security Trials, Court records

Date(s)

  • 1958 - 1982 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

50 boxes and 46 microfilm reels

Context area

Name of creator

(1929-)

Administrative history

After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, legislation was enacted which discriminated against the non-White section of the population and increased the racial segregation existing at the time of Union. This angered many Blacks and caused a series of strikes by Black workers. By the 1920s responsible Europeans, particularly churchmen, saw the importance of bringing the races together. Native Welfare Societies, consisting of liberal and philanthropic Europeans, were founded which in due course were replaced by Joint Councils, inter-racial in character.

The Joint Council movement was largely the inspiration of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones and Dr. J.E.K. Aggrey who in 1921 conducted a study tour of education in South Africa on behalf of the Phelps-Stokes Fund of the United States of America. They had seen the value of inter-racial councils in America and persuaded Dr. C.T. Loram, Chief Inspector of Education in Natal, and his friend J. D. Rheinallt Jones, Secretary of the Witwatersrand Council of Education, to establish a multi-racial organisation with the aim of promoting understanding and goodwill between the races. Rheinallt Jones founded the first Joint Council of Europeans and Africans in Johannesburg in 1921 and by 1931 there were in existence thirty European-African Joint Councils' three European-Indian Joint Councils and a European-Coloured Joint Council was in the process of formation. In all eighty Joint Councils were established, many of them continuing to exist side by side with the Institute of Race Relations after it was founded in 1929. By 1951 only two Joint Councils remained, of which only one was active.

During visits to South Africa in the 1920s Dr. Jesse Jones convinced Rheinallt Jones of the need to set up a national body to centralise interracial activities. The project was made possible by finance from the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the Carnegie Corporation. Rheinallt Jones convened an inter-racial conference in Cape Town in January 1929 which revealed enthusiasm for a national organisation. He called together a committee of seven prominent South Africans not connected with any political party - E.H. Brookes, Professor J. du Plessis, Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, Dr. C.T. Loram, T.W. Mackenzie, J.H. Nicholson and J.H. Pim. They met on 9 May 1929 at the house of the Rev. Dr. R.E. Phillips in Johannesburg, resolved to fern a South African Institute of Race Relations and elected C.T. Loram chairman Howard Pim treasurer and Rheinallt Jones secretary.

With the deaths of Mackenzie end Nicholson and the transfer of Loram to a professorial chair at Yale, the Committee was reduced to six but in 1930 Dr. J.G. van der Horst was added and in 1931 Professor R.F.A. Hoernle, Leo Marquard and Senator Lewis Byron. These ten committee members are regarded as the foundation members of the Institute.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

The collection forms part of the archive of the SAIRR.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The collection contains in part the court proceedings of prominent trials against political activists in South Africa.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Archivist's note

The initial digitisation of selected material was made possible by a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, including:
Item 14.1, Heads of Argument for the case Sathasivan Cooper and eight others was digitised in January 2012
Item 14.3, Court record including testimony of CM Williamson at the trial of Alan Morris Fine was digitised in April 2012
Item 15, Court record of the Barbara Anne Hogan trial was digitised in April 2012

A further digitization of the remaining physical court records was made possible by a generous grant from Carnegie Corporation.

In 2017 the Wits University Library digitized the court records which are contained on microfilm - items 52-95.

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

Related genres

Related places