At the centre of the SACHED Archive Project is the ordering and recovery of the SACHED educational material produced over the decades between the 1970s and the 1990s. The approach to this task is informed by the idea that the SACHED archives should become an active agent in support of the ongoing struggle to build an emancipatory, equal and democratic education system for everyone. Given SACHED’S history and experience, much of the focus of the project will be in the arena of adult education. Yet it is important to remember that while SACHED’S strategic focus was on adult education, it regarded conventional boundaries as limiting and educational systems as a continuum. 

A key function of the SACHED Archives Project is to find ways and means of making as much of its educational materials accessible and available to a range of organisations and social movements engaged in the educational challenges that confront us. In the main these were community -based organisations and the emerging democratic trade union movement and progressive NGOs. Thus, the archives are not just a collection of materials confined to the collections that available only in universities but are actively used in support of the work of radical organisations and social movements whose work is oriented to social change.  

Given the potential of social media to strengthen and enhance the work of organisations and social movements, exploring strategies to enhance and widen access to and the reach of the archives project is a critical aspect of the work. 

This website will provide free access to all the digitised and audio/visual materials for use by all who are interested; to the history of ideas and personal reflections through the interviews and written contributions; academic articles on the times and context and impact of SACHED; links to the SACHED archives at Mayibuye, UWC, Wits Archiving Centre and UCT African Studies Library and links to other adult education and training websites and institutions.  

We hope that the materials, the ideas, debates and archives will allow the past to interact with the present to create a future vibrant quality adult education and training community that will service all types of adult learners to achieve their individual goals and create a more just society for all.   

Almost a year ago, Louise Vale raised the issue of the SACHED legacy with Enver and myself. And so began a journey that has been both emotionally and intellectually rewarding, as well as helping us to clarify the purpose of our exploration. Within a short while Louise gathered a list of names and contact details of people who had worked at SACHED and began the process of archiving SACHED’s work. In a note to the SACHED people, she reported on some initial thinking that had prompted our search for the archive and sought the participation of the many people who had been identified. We were very fortunate to be given an extremely useful platform by Salim Vally in August 2023, during the annual Neville Alexander Conference, and were able to use the space to announce the establishment of the Archives Project. We are also extremely grateful to Noor Neftgodien for agreeing to locate the project in the stable of the Wits History Workshop and thus giving the project a legitimate home.  

Another positive outcome in the process of setting up the project was a cooperation and collaboration generated with several organisations and partners such as the University of the Western Cape, the Wits History Workshop, the African Studies Library  at the University of Cape Town and the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg.  

We are presently reaching out to the library associations in South Africa and Africa as it seems to us that their sites could become writing, reading and learning spaces for youth and many beyond the formal adult education and training community.  

A generous funding grant of 50,000 U.S. dollars from the Ford Foundation has enabled us to start the Project and begin the work.  

John Samuel, Enver Motala: July 2024