Planact started in 1985 as a voluntary organisation in response to a situation in which professionals and academics were being approached by community groups for assistance on problems of housing and development.

The commitment was to pool resources and provide services to community groups and trade unions that did not have easy access to expertise and resources.

Planacts' members included architects, engineers, planners, lawyers, sociologists and people with organisational and administrative experience.

Planact is a funded non-profit organisation working in the field of housing, local government and urban development. Its principal object is to provide technical, professional and organisational skills and assistance to communities adversely affected by state planning, apartheid policies and economic inequalities.

Planact works in the following areas:

Housing

Land

Services - provision of bulk infrastructure such as water, sanitation, roads and refuse- community services such as health and educational facilities

Local Government

Local Economic Development

Planact has been one of the most successful NGOs during the dying days of apartheid. This is evident in the number of local and national campaigns that Planact played a supportive role, and the volume of material to be found in this collection.

Planact's growth and expansion has been phenomenal. In 1986 Planact had only two full time staff members, and by 1992 there were over forty full-time staff members.

After the first democratic election in 1994, many of the Planact staff members resigned to take up key positions in the newly formed democratic government both at the national, provincial and local level.

The funding scenario also changed during this period. Many of the International Donors who had funded Planact directly, now channelled the money to the democratic government through bilateral and multi-lateral agreements.

This necessitated a rethinking and restructuring of Planact by 1995.

This led to a scaling down and refocusing of Planact activity.

Planact needed to develop relationships with the newly emerging local government entities by assisting with change management & transformation.

But at the same time also maintaining links with civil society through development projects.