Hi Jane
I was feeling lazy when I first read your request (was it yours) and now
I am not sure I am on the right track here-I knew I should have answered
immediately.

South African museums obviously have much to catch up on in terms of
collections related to protest action and radical politics. You might try to
get hold of Johnny van Schalkwyk at the National Cultural History
Museum ([log in to unmask]) who started collecting the paraphernalia
of the New South Africa in 1990 when the ANC  others were unbanned
and suddenly every T-shirt, scarve, badge depicted in some way the
colours or the peole of these organisations. He has also had an ongoing
project collecting songs of the stuggle as a type of oral history. I have
also given him some of the posters I collected during my activist days
with an organisation with a reputation for its posters and "cultural
events'. Sadly our very nice and numerous banners sit somewhere in
the halls of government as they were all 'confiscated' either during a
protest action when we were banned or when the security police broke
into our office!
The Natal Museum in Pietremaritzburg has a collection of artefacts and
put on an exhibit on the urban culture of the anti-apartheid struggle. The
person who ran this project is no longer at the museum but try them at
Natal Museum, Private bag 9070, Pietermaritzburg, 3201.

Of course the best people to talk to would be Gordon Metz or Andre
Odendal who head the Mayibuye Centre, an archive of documents,
photographs and artefacts focusing on apartheid and the struggle
against it. At one stage you couldn't find those 'Whites only' signs that
seemed to be everywhere the day before, for love or money. Contact
the Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape, Historical and
Cultural Centre, Private Bag x17, Belville, 7535. They should have a good
understanding of collecting the ephemera of social change and action.

Kathryn