The Constitutional Assembly was tasked with writing a new constitution for a non-racial South Africa within two years of its first sitting. It was the final deciding body of the contents of the new constitutional text.

This series includes audio recordings of Constitutional Assembly meetings, submission, reports, draft constitutional texts, bills and other materials from the structures of the Constitutional Assembly. Many if these materials were prepared by the Constitutional Committee.

The Constitutional Assembly created several structures to assist in fulfilling its mandate, of which the Constitutional Committee was primary. The Constitutional Committee functioned as the primary negotiating and driving body of the Constitutional Assembly. Other structures were outlined and required by the Interim Constitution (Act 200 of 1993: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa).

The Constitutional Assembly determined that the constitution-making process would be an integrated and transparent one. Integration required that the ideas of political parties in the Constitutional Assembly, civil society and the broader public be considered.

Integration was a significant task of the theme committees in receiving and processing public submissions. Transparency was facilitated by requiring all meetings of the Constitutional Assembly and its structures to be open to the public and the media.

Membership for the Constitutional Committee and theme committees were drawn directly from the Constitutional Assembly.

The Constitutional Committee was responsible for creating refined working drafts of the constitution and incorporating amendments adopted by the Constitutional Assembly. The Constitutional Committee acted as both a negotiating forum and a driving body of the Constitutional Assembly.

The series Constitutional Committee contains the working documents of the Constitutional Committee, audio recordings of Constitutional Committee meetings and reports submitted to it from all other structures of the Constitutional Assembly. Drafts bills, amendments, and reports on contentious issues and debates can be found in this series.

As a negotiating body the Constitutional Committee created sub-committees and ad hoc committees to assist in negotiating and drafting. Primary among these was the Constitutional Committee Sub-committee which dealt with substantive issues that the Constitutional Committee was unable to process because of time constraints.

As the driving body of the constitution-making process, it supervised the establishment of the theme committees and related structures such as technical committees, formed the Management Committee, and outlined the work plan for the Constitutional Assembly and its structures.

The Management Committee was responsible for matters of process. It implemented tasks of the Constitutional Committee, oversaw the Administration unit, and monitored the media and public participation. This series contains the Management Committees’ working documents, and audio recordings of their meetings.

Management Committee tasks included:

• preparing agendas for Constitutional Committee meeting
• preparing reports to be considered by the Constitutional Committee
• co-ordinating the activities of the theme committees
• co-ordinating the activities of all structures of Constitutional Assembly
• attending, between meetings of the Constitutional Committee, to the day-to-day management and overseeing of developments in the structures.

The series CODESA 2 contains all meetings post CODESA 1 and preparatory to CODESA 2 and the associated plenary documents.

The series Technical Committees is divided into eight units of description. The first seven correspond to the themes of the technical committees and are titled as such, they are:

• Technical Committee on Violence
• Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues
• Technical Committee on Fundamental Rights during the Transition
• Technical Committee on Independent Election Commission
• Technical Committee on Independent Media Commission and the Independent Telecommunications Authority
• Technical Committee on Repeal and Free Political Activity
• Technical Committee on Transitional Executive Council
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  The eighth unit of description Technical Committees: General contains documents related to the management of technical committees.

The Negotiating Council established the seven technical committees. Technical committees were instruments of the Negotiating Council for the production of systematic documentation to facilitate discussions and negotiations in the Negotiating Council. They were not negotiating bodies. They largely functioned to advise and formulate specific texts, which were then submitted to the Negotiating Council for review.

Depending on the outcome of the review, formulations were either passed on to the Negotiating Forum or returned to the technical committees for refinement. The Planning Committee was tasked with managing and coordinating the work of the technical committees.

The series Miscellaneous contains material in three groups covering the 1994 election process, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, and a portable exhibition on the life of Nelson Mandela.

The series Planning Committee contains the working documents of the Planning Committee and the Sub-committee of the Facilitating Committee (as it was briefly known). In addition to its own minutes and delegation packs; reports and proposals from other bodies of the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP) and the Planning Committee Sub-committee can be found here. 

The Planning Committee was made up of ten members of the Negotiating Council and worked under the directives and supervision of it. The Planning Committee formed the Planning Committee Sub-committee to assist in logistic and co-ordinating processes of the MPNP. The Planning Committee submitted recommendations on procedural and substantive issues for negotiation to the Negotiating Council but was not itself mandated to take any final decisions. 

The Planning Committee formulated the terms of reference for the negotiating bodies such as the Negotiating Council, Negotiating Forum and commissions. It also proposed duties for the technical committees, received reports from technical committees, and had the mandate to request further investigation into areas that it deemed required it.