TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL OFFICE: Councils, Constituencies & Information Files
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UNISA LIBRARY UNITED PARTY ARCHIVES TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL OFFICE: Councils, constituencies & information files Compiled by Marié Coetzee 1987 Revised and updated Marié Coetzee 2012 UNITED PARTY ARCHIVES TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL OFFICE: 1905-1987 Councils, constituencies & information files Introduction In terms of an agreement with the United Party in 1969, Unisa Library became the official custodian and processor of the Party’s political archive. The Archives also include the United Party’s predecessors and its successor the New Republic Party and the records of parties which broke away from the UP e.g. the Progressive Party (later the Progressive Federal Party). The Collection continued to grow even after the dissolution of the UP in 1977 and the final meeting of the trustees of the New Republic Party in 1989. The scope of the archival records The Transvaal Provincial Office, councils, constituencies and information files consist of 66 linear metres of records (large format volumes and 400 boxes). The Transvaal Provincial Office is part of the larger - approximate 500 linear metres - United Party Archives which are available to national as well as international researchers. The Archives are of particular value in that the records are the official documents of a white South African political party who ruled for 38 years and who were the official opposition for 39 years. Over the years the Archives have been consulted by biographers, historians, politicians, educators, TV and film directors, lawyers, socialists and others. In addition to official party documents, the United Party itself also collected biographical information and materials on other political parties. The Transvaal Provincial Office collected information resources on issues and persons who played a role in South African politics and society. These files contain valuable reports, pamphlets and press cuttings. The file on Charles W Clark, who gave up his Pretoria East parliamentary seat in favour of Gen Smuts in 1948, gives the researcher some insight into the life of a politician who represented the United Party for twenty years. Other interesting files are those on Soweto, Pretoria and Reef townships, Doornkloof Society, the Vereeniging Hospital Commission of Inquiry, the Progressive Party and Progressive Reform Party as well as the 1958 Johannesburg City Council Report of the Riots Commission in which Oliver Tambo gave evidence on behalf of the of the African National Congress. The constituency files are important as they show the social changes of communities over time. After the nineteen-fifties, the urban population grew in sharp contrast to the diminishing rural population. As a result of urbanization, successive Delimitation Commissions created new urban constituencies and abolished or merged rural constituencies. In the Transvaal Province political parties also contested municipal elections. The South African Party and its successor, the United Party, played key roles in the development of municipal services on the Witwatersrand. The minutes of the Johannesburg Federation of Ratepayers between 1919 and 1951 also form part of the Transvaal Provincial Office Archives. The arrangement of the UP Archives From an archival view point, the arrangement and description of the United Party records was problematic. The Archives were created by a few paid party officials, volunteers, individual members – who at times broke away from the UP and created new parties - agents and © Unisa Archives. United Party Archives Transvaal Provincial Office i representatives over many decades. The United Party never had a unified filing system for records – each province, constituency and branch followed its own system. The state of disorder of party materials, made it obvious that there was never a file plan or any control over the creation of party records. The archivist therefore had to design a new filing system to accommodate past and future donations. In order to keep track of all donors a database was created of all donors. Records were not placed under the names of individual donors as it would divide the contents e.g. if the records of Waterkloof constituency were donated by four donors namely a secretary, the MP, the treasurer and / or chairman of a branch, a researcher working on the Waterkloof constituency would need to consult four different donor accessions. In the end, the archivist followed the provenance principle and created a basic party structure for the Central Head Office, the Division of Information, the Cape, Transvaal, Natal, Free State Provinces and Namibia. This system enabled the archivist to place all Pinelands constituency files in one place. Within this system, the files are arranged alphabetically and chronologically. The United Party Archives are arranged as follows: • Central Head Office • Division of Information and Research (administrative files, files on people and subject files) • Division of Organisation • Provincial Offices of the Cape, Natal, Free State, Transvaal and Namibia. These offices were sub-divided into regional offices, constituencies, branches, subject files and files on people. • Photograph and cartoon collection • Film Collection • Banner Collection • Map Collection • Party periodicals and newspapers • Speeches on tape • Posters • Private papers of individual members To assist with the identification of records, a database of all candidates of all parties who took part in elections and by-elections from 1910 to 1987 in South Africa and Namibia, was created. A perpetual calendar – also known as a forever calendar - was used to find the year in cases where items were only marked with a day and a month. Thanks to the archival process of arrangement and description, the rich information resources of the United Party have become accessible and useable for past, present and future researchers. © Unisa Archives. United Party Archives Transvaal Provincial Office ii UNITED PARTY ARCHIVES: TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL OFFICE HET VOLK 1. Constitution 1905 2. Constitution and programme 1907 3. Gen. Botha's election meeting 1907 SOUTH AFRICAN PARTY (There are also South African Party documents in the UP constituency files) 1. Congresses 1.1 first provincial congress minutes 1911 1.2 fifth provincial congress minutes and speeches delivered by Gen Smuts and Col. H Mentz 1919 1.3 sixth provincial congress agenda 1921 1.4 seventh provincial congress agenda 1923 1.5 eighth provincial congress minutes 1924 1.6 tenth provincial congress speech by Gen. Smuts "Status of the Union" 1926 1.7 eleventh provincial congress agenda and resolutions 1927 1.8 thirteenth provincial congress agenda and resolutions 1929 1.9 fourteenth provincial congress agenda and resolutions; speech by Gen. Smuts 1930 1.10 fifteenth provincial congress agenda and notes 1931 1.11 sixteenth provincial congress agenda 1932 1.12 seventeenth provincial congress agenda and resolutions adopted by the Executive Committee 1933 1.13 special provincial congress addresses delivered by Gen. Smuts and J P Jooste 1934 2. Finances cash-books 1920-1930 3. Scrap-books 3.1 scrap-book no. 1 1919-1924 3.2 scrap-book no. 2 1920-1921 3.3 scrap-book no. 3 1920-1926 3.4 scrap-book no. 4 1921-1922 3.5 scrap-book no. 5 1922-1923 © Unisa Archives. United Party Archives Transvaal Provincial Office 1 UNITED PARTY and NEW REPUBLIC PARTY PROVINCIAL OFFICE 1. Circulars 1967-1968; 1972-1974 2. Committees 2.1 Action Committee minutes 1949-1950 2.2 Executive Committee minutes and annexures 1942;1969; 1973-1977 2.3 Head Committee minutes and circulars 1939-1976 2.4 Finance Committees 2.4.1 Finance Committee minutes and annexures 1943-1945 2.4.2 Staff and Finance Committee and Action Committee minutes and annexures 1945-1949 2.4.3 Finance Committee minutes and annexures 1967-1968; 1974-1976 2.5 Standing Committee minutes and annexures 1962-1964 2.6 Transvaal Committee on native policy reports and annexures, questionnaire, working papers and Marais Steyn's proposal 1954 3. Congresses (national) correspondence and delegates 1973 4. Congresses (provincial) 4.1 first annual provincial congress agenda 1935 4.2 second annual provincial congress agenda 1936 4.3 third annual provincial congress agenda 1937 4.4 fourth annual provincial congress agenda 1938 4.5 fifth annual provincial congress (congress was postponed because of the War) agenda 1939 4.6 sixth annual provincial congress agenda and resolutions 1941 4.7 provincial congress agenda, correspondence, circulars, delegates, resolutions and annexures 1944 4.8 provincial congress agenda, circulars, delegates, reservations and resolutions 1945 4.9 provincial congress agenda and correspondence 1946 4.10 provincial congress correspondence and circulars 1947 4.11 provincial congress agenda and correspondence 1948 4.12 provincial congress agenda 1949 4.13 provincial congress agenda 1950 © Unisa Archives. United Party Archives Transvaal Provincial Office 2 4.14 provincial congress agenda 1951 4.15 provincial congress agenda 1952 4.16 provincial congress agenda 1953 4.17 provincial congress agenda 1954 4.18 provincial congress agenda 1955 4.19 provincial congress agenda 1956 4.20 provincial congress agenda 1957 4.21 provincial congress agenda 1958 4.22 provincial congress agenda 1960 4.23 provincial congress agenda, minutes and annexures, speech by Sir De Villiers Graaff 1962 4.24 provincial congress agenda 1963 4.25 provincial congress agenda, correspondence and resolutions and speech by Sir De Villiers Graaff 1964 4.26 provincial congress correspondence, circulars, delegates,