This series contains the working documents of the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum. The Forum had two sessions, the first from 1 to 2 April 1993, and the second on 2 July 1993. The series includes the minutes, delegation packs, reports, and resolutions that define the operating procedure and decision making process of the MPNP. 

The result of the Multi-Party Planning Conference in March 1993 was to arrange the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum. Its first meeting was held at the World Trade Centre Johannesburg 1 and 2 April 1993. This meeting was the formal re-entry into the negotiation process to establish a transitional government and constitution to end apartheid after the breakdown of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) in 1992.

The Negotiating Forum became the highest body under the direction of the MPNP Plenary. It instructed and supervised the negotiating process occurring within the Negotiating Council. The resulting drafts for the Interim Constitution were presented to MPNP Plenary as the wider representative body for ratification and amendment. 

The Negotiating Forum functioned to instruct and supervise the negotiating process occurring within the Negotiating Council and its committees. It confirmed reports and proposals (with or without amendments) from the Negotiating Council. 

Within this series can be found the final versions of bills drafted by all bodies of the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP) as well as resolutions and adoptions of those bills. 

The Multi-Party Negotiation Process Plenary was a widely representative body of South African leaders and political parties who confirmed and amended agreements reached by all other negotiating bodies of the MPNP. It was the highest body of the MPNP. The Multi-Party Negotiating Process had one Plenary on 17 November 1993.

The series Women Representatives contains material from the Meeting of the Women Representatives of Participating Parties in the Multi-party Negotiation Forum on the 26 and 31 March 1993. These meetings framed the terms on which women were included in the Multi-Party Negotiation Process (MPNP). 

On the 18 March 1993 Constitutional Committee, during discussions on the structure and composition of the negotiation process, determined that all parties and organisations participating in the negotiation process should submit “a female representative” to attend a meeting. There was a noted lack of women participating in the MPNP; the meeting was to establish the views of women on the form of their participation in the negotiating process going forward. 

The resulting meeting of Women Representatives recognised that during the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) the representation of women in the negotiating process had been lacking.

During CODESA, the Gender Advisory Committee (GAC) was established. GAC was to be primarily composed of women and was intended to provide for greater gender equality and representation at CODESA. GAC was able to comment and recommend alterations to text from negotiation processes occurring in CODESA however GAC did not participate directly in the negotiations themselves. GAC’s recommendations and submissions received no feedback from the CODESA 2 Plenary. 

Recommendations made by the Meeting of Women Representatives included that all delegations to the Multi-Party Negotiation Forum and future plenaries should be required to include women rather than continue with an auxiliary structure such as GAC. This recommendation and others were accepted by the Negotiating Council to ensure that women would be active participants in the negotiation process going forward.

The series Communications Committee contains the minutes, planning for the attendance of media, and draft codes of conduct for media attending meetings of the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP) and its bodies. Media statements of committees can be found in the units of description named for that committee.

The Communications Committee was formed on 30 March 1993 by the Negotiations Council and was composed of one representative of each party and organisation sending delegations to the Multi-party Negotiation Forum.

In the lead up to and during the Negotiating Forum on 1 and 2 April 1993, the Communication Committee led interactions with the media on behalf of parties and organisations within the Negotiating Forum. After the Forum, the Communication Committee drafted a code of conduct and was advised to meet on an ad hoc basis as required by the Planning Committee to which it reported.

This series contains a variety of materials and media related to a multi-phase investigation conducted by the Commission of the Demarcation of State, Provinces and Regions. It includes the working documents and reports of the Commissions, the Technical Support Team, Task Force, Coordinating Committee and other sub-structures. Additionally the Commission’s research materials, public submissions and recordings of public hearings are also available.

On 28 May 1993 the Negotiating Council on the recommendation of the Planning Committee, formed the Commission of the Demarcation of State, Provinces and Regions (SPRs). The Negotiating Council, having realised that the regional boundaries would be relevant to the electoral process and the resulting structures of the Constitution, required the Commission to make recommendations on the demarcation of SPRs in South Africa.

The question of structures, powers and function of SPRs was not included in the Commission’s functions and was assigned to the Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues.

The Commission embarked on an investigation which included multiple rounds of public submissions and hearings. Due to the scale of the undertaking, the Commission formed several task groups and ad hoc committees. The Planning Committee’s "extended Coordinating Committee on the Commission of the Demarcation of State, Provinces and Regions" provided logistic support to the Commission and its sub-structures while reporting on the Commissions' investigations to the Planning Committee. 

The Commission was instructed to take into account the following criteria in its assessments:

• Historical boundaries, including provincial magisterial and district boundaries and infrastructure.
• Administrative considerations including the availability or non-availability of infrastructure and nodal points of service.
• The need or otherwise to rationalise existing structures, including TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei) states, self-governing and regional governments.
• The necessity of limiting financial and other costs as much as is reasonably possible.
• The need to minimise inconvenience to the people.
• The need to minimise the dislocation of services.
• Demographic considerations.
• Economic viability.
• Development potential.
• Cultural and language realities.
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  The Commission, in a report to the Negotiating Council, identified eight “sensitive areas” which received further investigation by the Task Force composed of members from the Commission and Technical Support Team.

The “sensitive areas” identified by the Negotiating Council were:

• Eastern Transvaal
• Pretoria/Witwatersrand/Vereeniging
• Orange Free State
• Eastern Cape/Transkei/Ciskei
• Western Cape
• Northern Transvaal
• Northern Cape
• Kwazulu/Natal
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Invitations for written and verbal submissions were issued in mid-August 1993 to political parties and organisations represented in the Negotiating Council, media agencies and others. The hearings were arranged from 21 September to 2 October 1993 and were held in Welkom, Kokstad, East London, Vredendal, Calvinia, Hartswater, Klerksdorp, Kwandebele, Pretoria and the World Trade Centre.

While it was recommended by the Commission that referendums should be held in February 1994 to determine boundaries in sensitive areas, the Coordinating Committee was of the opinion that multiple bilateral meetings was unfortunately the necessary route due to the extreme time constants for the defining boundaries before the election on 27 April 1994. 

Ultimately the Coordinating Committee recommended the adjustments to the boundaries as suggested by the Commission for the purposes of the Interim Constitution during the transition. This was accepted by the Planning Committee and was ultimately adopted.

The series Commission on National Symbols contains a small digitised subset of public submissions made to the Commission on National Symbols. Further material is available from the National Archives and Record Service of South Africa.

The Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues on 27 July 1993 recommended to the Negotiations Council that the selection of national symbols be removed from its tasks due the deeply political rather than technical nature. The Negotiating Council agreed and appointed a Commission on National Symbols on 7 September 1993. Commission on National Symbols ran a public submission campaign from which National Symbols were selected.

This series contains the audio recordings of the Negotiating Council. Documents of the Negotiating Council can be found in the series Negotiating Council.

The Negotiating Council, originally the Facilitating Committee, was the representative negotiating body of the Multi-Party Negotiation Process (MPNP) and established the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) to serve as its successor. It was ultimately responsible for the negotiating, drafting, finalising and implementation of the Interim Constitution as endorsed by the MPNP Plenary. 

This series primarily contains reference materials from the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) used during discussions by various organs of the Multi-Party Negotiating Process and other categorised materials.