Established as the highest legal authority in the land in all constitutional matters, this court is a key institution in ensuring that the country's democratic principles are upheld and function properly. The court was officially opened by former president Nelson Mandela on 14 February 1995.A champion of social justice, the late Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson was appointed first president of the court. All the judges took their oath on 14 February wearing their specially designed green robes. The 11-person bench sat for its very first case the next day, 15 February 1995 to ...

right to information protected under the PAIA". This version also placed no restrictions on how long the government could take to deal with requests, which would delay an already cumbersome process, they warned. Critics like the CSN, which is also made up of the Open Democracy Advice Centre, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South African Litigation Centre, argue that the bill, which has been on the table since last year, will affect not only the media's access to documents, but civil society, academia and the public. CSN said there was already adequate protection of ...

... Africa.' Electronic Document and Records Management Conference, Johannesburg, May, 2005 Presentation: 'What is the Mandela Archive?' Landscapes of Postcolonial Memorialisation Conference, Cape Town, May, 2005   Shadrack Katuu: Opinion Piece: Reviewing A Prisoner in the Garden: Opening Nelson Mandela's Prison Archive, East and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) Newsletter, 12, December), pg. 5-7 Opinion Piece: "Do we have what it takes to connect the dots?" Mmegi Monitor, 20 July, 2005 Read this op-ed. Press ...

is a NGO offering legal advice and assistance to vulnerable and/or marginalised members of society. The LRC engages in public interest litigation, including PAIA, where its clients, most of whom are NGO's, encounter problems when using the Act to collect evidence for legal matters. Visit LRC  Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is a NGO which contributes to the making of just society by keeping alive the legacy of Nelson Mandela, provding an integrated public information resource on his life and times and by ...

... archives do not have consent of the persons concerned and if that information is not already publicly available, the possible impact on the archive and the public could be that important personal information and factual history that is of public interest could be lost forever. And in 2009 the Nelson Mandela Foundation together with SAHA submitted to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development that there needed to be an exemption for "information processed for historical, statistical or research purposes". Unfortunately this argument which was in a ...

Democratic Front (UDF). The South African History Archive (SAHA) is in possession of a wealth of materials on the formation of the UDF, its affiliates, campaigns and publications across the country, in large part donated to SAHA by the UDF National Executive Committee in 1992. In August 2008, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South African History Archive (SAHA) joined forces, using posters and photographs from the archives to develop a virtual exhibition to explore the vital role the UDF played in bringing democracy to South Africa. Five years later, on the eve of the 30th ...

... In Paper Wars: Access to Information in South Africa ed. Kate Allan. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2009 Presentation. 'The TRC process in South Africa'. Workshop: Truth, Reconciliation and Transparency in South Africa and Kenya: Lessons learned. Johannesburg, 4 April 2009Goethe-Institut, Nelson Mandela Foundation and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Charlotte Young Writer and Creator, PAIA Resource Kit, July 2009. Presentation: Introduction to the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), presented to various NGOs and CBOs in 2007-2009 Panelist: IO Forum, ...

... centrality of the founding principle of non-racialism to the much lauded South African Constitution, the legacy of the apartheid policy of race classification and the related economic, social and political stratification this system entrenched and enforced remain all too evident today. A recent Nelson Mandela Foundation position paper argued that public discourses on race today “are dominated by expressions of denial, alienation, obfuscation and even self-hatred” and laments the apparent disappearance of those “robust narratives of non-racism and of Black

... element of the broad scope and vision of the anti-apartheid movement. Have you heard from Johannesburg series Road to Resistance As the U.N. adopts the Declaration of Human Rights, South Africa heads in the opposite direction and implements apartheid. A mass movement is born, then crushed, and Nelson Mandela is jailed for life. Hell of a Job The future of the movement is on the shoulders of Oliver Tambo, who escapes into exile and begins a 30-year journey to engage the world in the struggle to bring democracy to South Africa. The New Generation Youth in South Africa ...

... grieve, and express their support for the struggle. ‘Black Christmas' was thus declared, turning the festive season into a season of sorrow. UDF Virtual Exhibition As part of our commitment to making archives accessible, SAHA has developed a virtual exhibition in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Launched in August 2008 to commemorate 25 years since the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF), this free, online resource uses archival materials to explore the vital role the UDF played in bringing democracy to South Africa. Visit the UDF ...