As the world celebrated international archives week from June 6-10 and international archives day on June 9, under the theme ‘#ArchivesAreYou’, it was a reminder to us to value the availability and accessibility of archives in society.
The theme launched by the International Council on Archives, explains the importance of archives and what archival records truly reflect: stories. Perhaps, put bluntly by one Dominion archivist, Sir Arthur Doughty (1860—1936) the importance of archives can be summarised as follows: “Of all national assets, archives are the most precious, they are the gifts of one generation to another and the extent of our care of them marks the extent of our civilisation.
“As a rule, the papers of a given generation are seldom required after their reception and primary use, but when all personal touch with that period has ceased, then these records assume a startling importance for they replace hands that have vanished and lips that are sealed.” In SA, celebration of the archives week as hosted in the Eastern Cape by the deputy minister of sport, arts and culture, centred on the centenary of the first archives act which was passed in 1922.
Indeed, archives which start as records, play important role in society. Therefore, managing records properly leads to good public management because government activities are based on access to information contained in records. One can imagine a country without records of birth and citizenship, property ownership, health, social grants, and so on Without the records, the government will not be able to address issues such as poverty, crime, social grants, land rights and even the provision of basic services (water and electricity).
Therefore, an organisation can only act and make decisions if it has adequate information at its fingertips. In case of the government, the records also protect citizens’ rights, such as their rights to ownership of land, documented through land registration records, or their rights to pensions, documented through employee or personnel records.
Despite the crucial role played by records as indicated above, and highlighted by celebrations during archives week, many organisations, including government departments, pay little attention to the management of records, hence municipalities often receive disclaimer audit opinions from the Auditor-General SA.
When reporting on audit findings, the Auditor-General SA is always on record noting the importance of keeping records as a key component of any entity’s governance. In some organisations, these records are handled carelessly without realising that records constitute a major resource compared to finance, people, money, and equipment. The recent media reports about the dumping of confidential police records at the Steenberg Police Station in Cape Town is an example of how records are not managed properly.
Records are an indispensable ingredient in organisational accountability, both internal (such as reporting relationships) and external (to regulators, customers, shareholders, and the law). Records show whether the organisation or individuals in it have met defined legal, organisational, social, or moral obligations in specific cases. In all accountability forums, records are consulted as proof of activity by senior managers, auditors, and decisionmakers. Ultimately, these records metamorphosis into archives and need to be preserved.
These records are required by archival legislation and moral obligations to future generations to be preserved and made available to society for posterity and historical research. The preservation of such archives provides the basis for writing a country’s cultural and national history. In this regard, archives function as the memory of individuals, organisations, and society. In other words, archives can be used to describe or reconstruct an event or situation of the past.
It can therefore be concluded that records have administrative, legal, financial, and research value. While archives and records management may be regarded as just a mere filing, it plays a tremendous role in the governance of any organisation and memory of a country.
Prof Ngoepe is an archivist, author and academic.
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