Spanning the critical period at the end of apartheid, the SALDRU collection of clippings from 1975-2000 has proved to be an essential tool in assisting social scientists and academics to track South Africa, as well as broader southern Africa.
Over a 25 year period, cuttings from a number of major English-language newspapers from around the country were sorted into categories, filed in the SALDRU library, and consulted on a regular basis by scholars in various disciplines across the working in the areas of economics, politics and sociology.
As the collection grew to over a million clippings, it occupied an increasingly large amount of library space. With space on the UCT campus under increasing pressure, the clippings were threatened with incineration. SALDRU decided to save the clippings by digitizing the entire 25 year collection.
The result is a compact, easy to use, comprehensive reference resource containing 25 years of archival news clippings from southern Africa. It is a valuable reference tool for scholars around the world.
How to access
The clippings can be downloaded here.
Alternatively, you can order a hard copy:
- Contact SALDRU on saldru@uct.ac.za
- Price on request. Please note that this is not a profit-making exercise; the selling price serves only to cover the costs of digitization of the collection.
In the media
SALDRU clippings for Fort Hare
Chris McEvoy
Clippings for Fort Hare liberation archives
UCT Monday Paper