Archives at the Crossroads 2007 - Nelson Mandela Foundation

Archives at theCrossroads 2007Open Report to the Minister of Arts and Culture from the ArchivalConference “National System, Public Interest” held in April 2007 andco-convened by the National Archives, the Nelson Mandela Foundationand the Constitution of Public Intellectual Life Research Project.

Archives at theCrossroads 2007

ContentsSummary ........................................................................ 1Background ........................................................................ 2Conference Overview and Objectives ................................. 3The Role of Records and Archives in a Democracy .................... 4Lack of Access to the Archive .............................................. 5Valorised Heritage and Neglected Archive ................................. 8Isolation of Archive ........................................................... 9Patchy and Failing Archival Services ................................. 10The Digital Future ........................................................... 12National Archives Advisory Council ................................. 12Conclusion ........................................................................ 13Appendix 1Conference Programme ........................................................... 19Appendix 2Working Session Participants .............................................. 21Appendix 3Attendance Register ........................................................... 21Appendix 4Regional Archival Platform Proposal Summary .................... 28

Sarah Tyacke, University of London, gives the keynote addressEllen Namhila speaks from the floor

SummaryThe triggers that led to the holding of the Conference, various contributionsto the Conference, and the discussions that ensued, point unambiguouslyto an archival system that is under severe strain and to a wider archivesector urgently in need of support.The problems lie in three areas:The political and social role of archive and archiving in a democracyand in facilitating the work of building social cohesion in a diverse andhistorically-fractured society is still not recognized sufficiently, nor is it activelyand systematically fostered in and by government and indeed, in the broaderpublic sphere. Furthermore, many of the varied forms and sites of archiveand archiving go unrecognized.Archival work is seriously under-resourced because its significanceis largely unacknowledged.Lack of recognition and under-resourcing result in inadequate andunintegrated planning; a low skills-base among personnel; inadequate recordsmanagement in government departments; absence of clear career-paths forstaff; poor service delivery; inadequate conditions of preservation; in short,an archival system under strain and not serving South Africa as it should.Unless remedial action is taken soon, there is the potential for furtherdeterioration, even collapse.The records of government are a key instrument of efficient administrationand planning, and the means by which citizens hold governments accountableto them. The archive and archiving are further central tools of reconciliationand of the recognition of our common humanity embracing all our diversity.They are sites for the ongoing reconsideration of the past in order to enablea better future.We are at a crossroads. Right now there is a unique opportunity both to fixthe problems in the system and to use a rethought, 21 st century, postcolonialconcept of archive to underpin the urgent national project of social cohesion.On the other hand, there is a danger of the national system being reducedto an observer of poor governance and a loss of historical memory. What isat stake is not simply the survival of the inherited documents of the past, butour hard-won democracy itself and our possible future as a cohesive society.Archives at the Crossroads | 1

BackgroundIn response to a range of indicators signaling a troubled state of affairs inthe national archival system and in the archival sector more broadly, theNational Archives and Records Service, the Nelson Mandela Foundation andthe University of the Witwatersrand, with the support of the Minister of Artsand Culture, collaborated in organising a two-day conference (23 and 24April 2007) to assess the state of the national archival system and the vitalityof the broader archival sector.By national archival system we mean the institutional network of statestructures driven by the National Archives, which is charged with the tasksof ensuring the proper management of public records, promoting thepreservation and accessibility of South Africa’s archival heritage, and overseeingthe national system. The system comprises the National Archives, the NationalArchives Advisory Council, the various provincial archives structures, and arange of related governance structures. In terms of the Constitution, archivalresponsibility for records of the state generated by structures other thannational ones is the responsibility of provincial government.The broader archival sector includes a range of heritage institutions, a clutchof museums with significant artifact collections, university archives, privateand corporate archives, activist and community archives like the Gay andLesbian Archive (GALA), or the issue-driven South African History Archive(SAHA) which seeks to ensure open access to archives; a variety of archivaland memory projects locally, regionally and internationally such as the NelsonMandela Foundation’s Centre of Memory and Dialogue, the Living LandscapeProject that performs the archive of Rock Art in a community base, the DistrictSix Museum, and the Mellon-funded digitization projects DISA and ALUKA.It further includes users, creators and theorists of archive, among themprofessional historians, family history researchers, artists and other culturalworkers, identity theorists, academics and countless others.In the course of this report we refer to “archives,” “archiving” and “thearchive.” We use the term “archives” to refer to collections or storehouses ofpreserved historical resources, whether documentary, oral, visual, material,virtual or physical. In so doing we deliberately break from an inherited usageof the term “archives” as limited to texts, whether documentary or oral.“Archiving” refers to a range of dynamic processes including the processes bymeans of which some items get preserved and others do not, how choices aremade about systems used to preserve items, and the ways in which access torecords is determined.2 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

“The archive” is a conceptual term. It refers to the circumscribed body ofknowledge of the past that is historically determined as that which is availableto us to draw on when thinking about the past.Conference Overview and ObjectivesSouth Africa’s post-apartheid national archival system was inaugurated inlaw when the National Archives of South Africa Act came into operation inJanuary 1997. The Act was an expression of a transformation discourse inarchives which had emerged in the late 1980s and gathered momentum inthe early 1990s. This discourse focused its energies around two primaryimperatives: the building of a new national archival system for South Africa;and the imagining of a post-apartheid archive in South Africa. The Conferenceset itself the task of assessing how the archival landscape has changed inSouth Africa since 1997 by asking, on this the tenth anniversary of the Act’simplementation, how well the archival system is working. Key questionsconsidered included how transformation discourse has engaged changingrealities and what the key challenges are currently both in the national systemand in the broader archival sector.The Conference proposed a review which opens to the future, and whichfollowed the two strands in transformation discourse identified above –building and imagining. Part 1 of the Conference focused on the constitutingof a national archival system. Part 2 focused on the interplay of “nationalinterest” and “public interest” in the constituting of archive. The Conferenceprogramme is attached as Appendix 1.The Conference was held on 23 and 24 April 2007, and volunteers fromamong the participants met again on 25 April to identify the key issues forthis report. A list of the working session participants is attached as Appendix 2.The organizers sought participation from a wide grouping drawn from withinthe archival profession and from archives stakeholders more broadly. 143stakeholders registered and participated in the Conference proceedings. Ofthese 24.5% were from national government and 13.3% from provincialgovernment. Stakeholders from universities across South Africa, and as farafield as Namibia and London made up 17.5% of the total. Activist archivesmade up 9%, while community-based projects, national research/humanrights foundations and the SABC each made up 6.3%. Museums made up5.5%, and national heritage organistions and individual researchers/heritagepractitioners 2.8% each. The corporate sector made up 2.1% of the total,Archives at the Crossroads | 3

while the Constitutional Court, the educational/skills development sector (outsidethe universities) and digitisation projects each made up 0.7%. A full list ofparticipants is attached as Appendix 3.In the report that follows we sound a very serious warning regarding archives.We identify key problem areas and attempt to show what is at stake if they arenot addressed. Throughout we seek to identify where the Department of Artsand Culture and government need to act and what needs to be done. We alsoflag areas where archival professionals and archival stakeholders can make acontribution to addressing problems. The Conference supported the formationof an inter-institutional, inter-project, regional Archival Platform, with a five-yearagenda of promoting interaction amongst the Platform collaborators gearedtowards responding to the issues identified in this report. A summary of thedraft proposal for the formation of the Archival Platform is attached as Appendix 4.It is important to note that the report that follows is not a commissioned researchreport that systematically sets out to delineate the archival system and thebroader archival sector, and all the germane legislative and policy frameworks.Rather it identifies the key problems in the system and the sector, and theconcerns of the personnel and stakeholders who operate within those frameworks.It does this from the position of the concerned intellectuals - the practitionersand users located throughout the system and the sector - who confront theseproblems in their daily practice and who recognize their implications, bothimmediate and long-term.The Role of Records and Archives in a DemocracyIt is a fundamental tenet of democracy that government must be accountableto the electorate. Records management and archiving are key tools in fulfillingthis responsibility. But records management is not only about holding governmentaccountable. It is of direct benefit to government in the efficient conduct of itsday-to-day business, and underpins planning and the development of policies.However, the Conference noted a failure in the culture of government to prioritiserecord-keeping and archives. The sad fact is that participant after participantreported that registries are typically regarded as dumping grounds, for both staffand texts. Record-keeping across government is largely without active managementand personnel are untrained and unmotivated, though a few exceptions werenoted – for instance, encouraging developments in Limpopo Province show whatcan be achieved where there is a will.4 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Electronic records management in both the state and private sectors presentsfurther challenges. While physical documents do get consigned to the registriesalbeit in an often haphazard fashion and while few staff have the requisite skillsand knowledge effectively to implement the existing manual systems, electroniccommunications are at much greater risk of complete erasure. Electronic recordspersonnel require intensive continuing training, ongoing skills updating as wellas strategies for the long-term maintenance of digital records, involving soft andhardware migrations, not to mention the introduction of much-needed “industry”standards.The state has been provided with legislative tools that are amongst the mostpowerful available world-wide to enable and audit government record-keeping.These tools are not, however, wielded with purpose and effect. Independentresearch conducted by the Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) as part of itsODAC/SAHRC Openness and Responsiveness Awards programme, inauguratedthis year, substantiates and elaborates on the points made above.This state of affairs effectively is in breach of record-keeping requirementsdetermined ultimately by the Constitution and enshrined in the principles ofaccountable government, administrative justice and access to information. Thisis an ethical issue that the Archival Platform will be obliged to address actively.Ideally it would be best if the Department and the Platform could collaboratein this.This amounts to deeply worrying signs that archives are not being recognizedand given status in government. This point was also noted by the Truth andReconciliation Commission (TRC), which suggested that archives needed to belocated in the Presidency in order to be appropriately prioritized.Lack of Access to the ArchiveThe lack of public access to the archive has been repeatedly addressed inconferences, reports and in the media, yet remains a persistent and especiallytroubling matter. The culture of locking up materials in the archive persists evenin the wake of the TRC, which so forcefully made the case for an open andaccessible archive as fundamental for social justice.It is a matter of national concern that the full TRC record is still not publiclyaccessible despite the Commission’s own request that the record be available forpublic consultation. The access provisions of the Promotion of Access to InformationAct (PAIA) need to be reconciled with the public interest in access to this archive.Archives at the Crossroads | 5

Dr Graham Dominy, the National Archivist, and Verne Harris, Project Manager,Nelson Mandela Centre of MemoryAchmat Dangor of the Nelson Mandela foundation, and Jabulani Sithole of theUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal6 |

Yasmin Sooka, Foundation for Human RightsXolela Mangcu, Ali Hlongwane and Achmat Dangor prepare for session four| 7

While political will is clearly a significant factor here, the pending SAHRC reportmakes it clear that one reason for the lack of access to the archive is inadequatetraining, notably around the requirements of PAIA, and a poor culture of recordsmanagement in the departments concerned. As identified above, at root hereis a larger political failure to inculcate at the heart of government an appreciationof the role of records and archiving in maintaining a healthy democracy.Valorised Heritage and Neglected ArchiveThe Conference noted that heritage occupies a central place in the broad Artsand Culture framework in which archives is also situated. In part their respectiveconcerns overlap. Insofar as heritage policies ensure a recognition of intangibleheritage they enable a much-needed widening of the brief of archives. In practicehowever this has had a limited effect in archives, being confined primarily to anaugmentation of the written archive to include oral histories. For the most part,heritage discourse and practice and those of archives remain separate. This isbecause heritage is commonly regarded as the public face or point of presentationof past inheritances, while archive is regarded as the safe storehouse.A great deal has been written about heritage as the site where governments,especially those of new nations, claim a particular past to underwrite the emergingnational identity. We see this in South Africa in certain well-resourced flagshipheritage projects with high impact which promote a particular understandingof the South African past. Some of these projects, like the Robben Island Museumand Freedom Park, have archival components. Government has a clear rationaleand motivation for promoting these projects. They validate and preserve thememory of the freedom struggle. This plays an important role in helping SouthAfricans who were involved in the freedom struggle memorialize and value theirpasts. And, as many commentators have noted, the heritage and tourism agendasintersect in these projects. However, the matter of the archive is not coterminouswith the promotion of heritage.The Conference was concerned to draw government’s attention to the urgentneed to facilitate communities’ and individual citizens’ access to the archive fortheir own many and diverse projects of identity, to enable them to engage thepast, to promote ideas about the past and to contend others. Such access tothe archive is further crucial to the project of imagining their futures in SouthAfrica as well as to holding government accountable. We are all deeply awarethat there is no one definitive version of the past that holds good for all peopleat all times. To admit and facilitate a diversity of interpretations of the past is aprogressive challenge to politically dangerous exclusivisms. Open and viable8 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

archives are vital in anchoring citizenship and that in turn lies at the heart ofsocial cohesion.The Conference discussed the existence of a range of community-based initiativeswhich interrogate those archives that are available to them and use them asways of achieving understandings of the past and of imagining the future thatare not necessarily those that are envisaged in the formal heritage projects ofthe state. Nonetheless these local projects do important work in assisting thosecommunities to negotiate their identities within contemporary South Africa,allow the communities concerned to valorize those identities and where necessaryenable reconciliation over past injustices. In a number of best practice examplesthey result in archivally-based contemporary cultural initiatives with developmentaland employment possibilities. (The Living Landscape project involving theClanwilliam community provides a case in point.) Such initiatives illustrate vividlythe difference between archive and heritage, most notably in archive as an opensource for diverse explorations of the past, and heritage as a form of presentationof the past already organized into a story. As such the differences provide pointersfor national archival policy.Isolation of ArchiveThe Conference noted that the archive is currently understood in a limited wayas comprising the isolated institutions of the archival system. This definition ofthe archive is a colonial and apartheid inheritance that needs to be revised. Thecollections of material culture in museums, for example, are crucial archivalsources for the history of South Africa. Archival policies and projects need toinclude these holdings.The inherited definition further fails to acknowledge the presence of archive incountless aspects of cultural and social life: in neighbourhood jazz clubs, marriageand funeral rites, family photo albums, artworks, plays, novels and designerclothing, to name but a few of the many sites. These sites contain valuablearchival resources and significant archival energies flourish in them that meritrecognition within cultural policy. Indeed, archive needs to be recognized asfoundational to much of the work of the Department of Arts and Culture.The prevailing concept of archive is weighed down by its colonial and apartheidbaggage. The fact that the bulk of the documents comprising this archive relateto those regimes contributes further to its isolation. Two important points needto be registered here.Archives at the Crossroads | 9

Firstly, it is critically important that the record of oppression be preserved becauseof its capacity to explain the legacies of those eras that still persist, as well asits ability to account for oppression itself. It is also an important resource inenabling people to do the necessary work of coming to terms with oppression,whether as victims, perpetrators, witnesses, on-lookers or latter-day descendants.Secondly, the colonial and apartheid administrations recognized that theknowledge tools that operated amongst those whom they sought to rule werepowerful resources that could be yoked to their own project of domination.They assiduously collected, and archived, information about the subject peoples,and brought that information, reshaped in all sorts of ways, into play in thepractice of rule and into the knowledge system that underpinned that rule.Abundant and potent materials from and about the past were thus not annihilated,but insidiously saved, lodged in the colonial and apartheid archives, where theyyet lie, many still awaiting recuperation and rehabilitation in the service of postcolonialprojects.The collapse of the South African Society of Archivists and the Association ofArchivists and Manuscript Librarians adds a professional isolation on top of thisconceptual isolation. And there is no doubt that critical professional energiesare drying up as a result of the growing crisis in the teaching of history, bothat school and university levels.Patchy and Failing Archival ServicesIn 2006 the South African Historical Association wrote to the National ArchivesAdvisory Council expressing extreme concern about the state of disrepair anda failure in the provision of archival services in the national system. This followedan earlier petition from the South African Historical Society. The two interventionswere formal registrations of complaints and anxieties about the state of thearchival system reported widely in the research community and indeed atpreceding archives conferences.These concerns were addressed at the Conference. There is no doubt thatthe present archival and record-keeping services are patchy and in someinstances collapsing. The pending SAHRC Report mentioned above whichexplicitly tests public access to records in terms of the Promotion of Access toInformation Act confirms this.Two major factors contributing to these failures were identified: a lack of adequateresources and a lack of skills necessary for the various archives services.10 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Lack of resources: The Conference deliberations linked the lack of availableresources to two points: a national failure to appreciate what is at stake ininvesting in archive, and secondly the direction of resources into national flagshipprojects designed to produce politically valuable symbolic capital.Lack of skills: Three points were raised in relation to the lack of skills within thenational archival system:1. Failure in the culture of government to prioritise record-keeping andarchives. As noted above record-keeping across government is largely withoutactive management and personnel are untrained.2. Within the National Archives significant training is undertaken butpersonnel are rapidly lost to more attractive employment elsewhere becausesalaries are poor and advancement routes into departmental record-keepingstructures have not been developed. The critical links between record-keepingin government departments and ultimate archival deposit which would enablesuch routes have not been developed. Likewise, career advancement routesgeared towards introducing archival competencies into other cognate areas ofthe heritage and culture sectors have not been developed because critical linksacross these sectors are not in existence.3. The Conference noted that technical training for archivists is availablein educational institutions. The quality and range of the skills inculcated is notformally monitored by the profession and the necessary interweaving of technical,management and IT training, and theoretical education is not subject to reviewand adequate planning. These lacunae are partly a consequence of the collapseof the professional society. The matter needs to be addressed urgently via theArchival Platform. The Conference further noted a plethora of advanced Heritagequalifications but slender offerings in the area of archives. Again, this should beaddressed via the Platform.The Conference noted that the lack of career path integration between archives,the wider heritage sector, and records management means that the pool to beeducated under the current dispensation is too small to warrant educationalinstitution investment in this area without substantial incentives, traininginvestments and bursaries. Currently, what records management training isavailable is undertaken for departments by private consultants at huge cost andwithout attention being given to the connections into archives. These are mattersthat need to be taken up at departmental level.The frameworks in which the training takes place are the responsibility ofgovernment and these are in some disarray: these include the SAQA andstandards-generating body frameworks. Development of both of these frameworksArchives at the Crossroads | 11

has stalled. There is a lack of clarity around the status of Labour Departmentconcerns in relation to archives and in relation to the operation of SETAs. TheMAPPP-SETA for the heritage sector is effectively dysfunctional. Again, theseissues which involve other departments must be addressed by the Departmentof Arts and Culture, with the support of the Platform.The Digital FutureThere are clear indications that digitization can solve many problems related tolack of resources and to access, and indeed to isolation. However, digitizationalso throws up new resource and practice challenges of its own. Large foreigndigitization projects currently dominate the scene, raising fears about the recolonisationof local knowledge. It is essential that the Department take the leadin initiating sector-wide discussions that lead to policies and protocols designedto protect our archive, in all its many manifestations, from foreign appropriationwhile maximizing use of the available resources, avoiding duplication and ensuringongoing and enhanced accessibility. Issues of intellectual property require sustainedattention under Departmental auspices.Digitization also offers the means for the Department to negotiate for the returnof original documents (currently not prioritised by the Ifa Lethu initiative) thatcontinue to remain in the safe custodies to which they were consigned underapartheid. (The Karis and Carter collection is a typical example.) Digital copieswould allow those custodians to retain working copies of the documents inwhich they have invested preservatory care. However, such negotiations willdepend on the prior improvement of local archival facilities. Repatriation ofdocuments from South Africa to their places of provenance is also entailed here.National Archives Advisory CouncilIt is vital that the incoming Archives Council be afforded the fullest opportunityto grapple with all the points raised in this report and be fully supported incoming to grips with what is at stake nationally concerning archives. It is alsocrucial that the Council is enabled to fulfill its obligations ensuring that a full,valid and accessible record of government is available for public consultation.The Department should play a facilitative role here while the Platform shouldwork actively to ensure that the Council is held accountable.12 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

ConclusionWhile the current situation is dire indeed, there exists in the acknowledgementof the problem an opening for the Department, Council and the Platform tocollaborate in grasping the archival nettle. The Minister is uniquely well-placedat this time to work in partnership with the Platform (a community of diverseinstitutions positioned across society) to break down inhibiting sectoral barriersand to position the archive at the heart of the national project of social cohesion.This would entail a two-pronged strategy of using the opportunity created bythe failing system to attend to the nuts and bolts of the records system, whileat the same time casting off an out-of-date notion of archive and inauguratinga fully post-colonial one, informed by our unique and complex archivalengagements in situations of repression, liberation, negotiation, reconciliationand development. In so doing we have the opportunity to render service to ourdemocracy, and to contribute our ideas of archive to the cause of social justicethe world over.National Archives and Records ServiceNelson Mandela FoundationUniversity of the WitwatersrandJune 2007Archives at the Crossroads | 13

14 |Achmat Dangor, Nelson Mandela Foundation

Justice Albie Sachs| 15

16 |Ciraj Rassool (UWC) and Sello Hatang (SAHRC), panelists for session one

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Appendix 1: Conference ProgrammeMonday, 23 April 200709h30 - 10h00 | Tea10h00 - 10h05 | Welcome andIntroduction10h05 - 10h30 | Opening Address10h30 - 12h30 | Session 1| Chair| Panellists12h30 - 13h30 | Lunch13h30 - 14h00 | Keynote address14h00 - 16h00 | Session 2| Chair15h00 - 15h30 | Tea| PanellistsThe Archive and a National SystemAchmat Dangor,Nelson Mandela FoundationPallo Jordan, Minister of Arts and CultureAssessing processes of opening the archive, andunderstanding their continuing role inconstituting a post-apartheid archive| Graham Dominy,National Archives and Records Service| Sello Hatang,South African Human Rights Commission| Ciraj Rassool,University of the Western Cape| Verne Harris,Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialogue| Noel Solani,Nelson Mandela Museum| Sandra Prosalendis,Heritage PractitionerSarah Tyacke, University of LondonAssessing the new network of institutions andstructures designed to deliver a transformednational archival system| Verne Harris,Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialogue| Graham Dominy,National Archives and Records Service| Nkhumbudzeni Tshirado,Western Cape Provincial Archives Service| Brad Abbott,I-Forest| Ellen Namhila,University of Namibia| Sekgothe Mokgoatsana,Oral History Association of South AfricaArchives at the Crossroads | 19

Tuesday, 24 April 200709h00 - 09h30 | Tea09h30 - 12h00 | Session 3| Chair| Panellists12h00 - 13h00 | Lunch13h00 - 15h00 | Session 4| Chair| Panellists15h00 - 15h30 | Tea15h30 - 14h30 | Carolyn Hamiltonand Xolela MangcuThe Archive and the Public InterestExploring colonial and apartheid archives inpost-colonial contexts| Carolyn Hamilton,University of the Witwatersrand| Jabulani Sithole,University of KwaZulu-Natal| Patricia Hayes,University of the Western Cape| Geoff Blundell,Origins Museum| Achmat Dangor,Nelson Mandela FoundationExploring the distinctions between “nationalinterest” and “public interest”, and understandingthe role of archive in relation to both| Achmat Dangor,Nelson Mandela Foundation| Xolela Mangcu,University of the Witwatersrand| Albie Sachs,Constitutional Court Judge| Ali Hlongwane,Hector Pieterson Museum| Yasmin Sooka,Foundation for Human RightsThe Way Forward: Draft proposal for a nationalArchival PlatformA presentation of the current thinking on the possibilitiesand potentialities of an Archival Platform,which is conceptualised as a five-year long, crossinstitutional/cross-projects,conversation about thepost-colonial South African archive20 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Appendix 2: Working Session Participants, 25 April 2007NameAli K. HlongwaneBoniswa QabakaBrett PyperCarolyn HamiltonCiraj RassoolEthel ArendsGraham DominyJabu NkatingiJabulani SitholeNeo RamoupiNkhumbudzeni TshiradoNoel SolaniOliver BarstowRazia SalehSandra ProsalendisSarah TyackeSekgothe MokgoatsanaVerne HarrisYolisa SoulEmailalih@joburg.org.zaboniswa@nelsonmandela.orgBrett.pyper@wits.ac.zacarolyn.hamilton@wits.ac.zacrassool@uwc.ac.zaethel@nelsonmandela.orggraham.dominy@dac.gov.zankatingij@sac.norprov.gov.zasithole@ukzn.ac.zaneor@nelsonmandela.orgntshirado@pgwc.gov.zaMandelamuseum10@intekom.co.zaoliver.barstow@gmail.comrazias@nelsonmandela.orgsandraprosalendis@gmail.comstyacke@blueyonder.co.uksekgothem@ul.ac.zaverne@nelsonmandela.orgysoul@ufh.ac.zaAppendix 3: Attendance RegisterInstitution Last Name First Name Contact1. Mafumadi Thembeka thembekav@telksomsa.net2. Africa Alive Foundation Hamlin Anna annahamlin@msn.com3. Alexandra CommunityLibraryMatopa Winnie4. Alexandra HeritageAgencyKhonou Boitumelo khunou101@yahoo.com5. Alexandra HeritageAgencyMatsebe Kgomotso kgomzaro@webmail.co.za6. Alexandra HeritageAgencyPine Frederick fredericpine@yahoo.com7. Aluka Nygren Tom Tom.nygren@aluka.org8. ANC Archives Gugwini Nokubonga ngugwini@anc.org.za9. ANC Archives Mvunelo Zolile zmvunelo@anc.org.zaArchives at the Crossroads | 21

Institution Last Name First Name Contact10. ANC Caucus SupportServicesKula Fungiwe fukula@parliament.gov.za11. ANC Caucus SupportServicesMpuma Bomikazi bmpuma@parliament.gov.za12. ANC Caucus SupportServicesThompson Renee rthompson@parliament.gov.za13. Auditor General Ngoepe Mpho mphon@agsa.co.za14. Auditor General Yedwa Mntuwekhaya K kaya@agsa.co.za15. Constitution Hill Khumalo Nomsa nomsa@constitutionhill.org.za16. Constitution Hill Masemola Clement clement@constitutionhill.org.za17. Department ofCorrectional Services Mkhulise Simpiwe Mavuso.thembi@dcs.gov.za(DCS)18. Department ofCorrectional Services Nxumalo Felicity S Felicity.Nxumalo@dcs.gov.za(DCS)19. Department of DefenceDocumentation CentreJooste Louisa sandfdoc@mweb.co.za20. Department of DefenceDocumentation CentreVan Jaarsveldt Annette sandfdoc@mweb.co.za21. Department of Scienceand TechnologyNtsoane Otsile22. Department of Scienceand TechnologyVan Wyk Carol carol.vanwyk@dst.gov.za23. Eastern Cape ProvincialArchivesVan Zyl Johan Johan.vanzyl@srac.ecprov.gov.za24. Ekurhuleni Metro Hlohlongoane Busisiwe Tryphinah@Ekurhuleni.com25. Ekurhuleni Metro Makwela Diane dianem@ekurhuleni.com26. Ekurhuleni Metro Rapatsa Sohloane rapatsas@ekurhuleni.com27. Freedom Park Trust Ndaba Lubi lubi@freedompark.co.za28. Gauteng Archives Service Madlepe Eddie Eddie.madlepe@gauteng.gov.za29. Gauteng Archives Service Nxele Nonhlanhla Nonhlanhla.nxele@gauteng.gov.za30. Hector PietersonMuseumRamncwana Babalwa babalwar@joburg.org.za31. Ifa-Lethu Maaba Brown brown@ifalethu.org.za32. Independent Researcher Godfrey Mulaudzi L Godfrey@union.org.za33. International LabourOrganisationKomane Thwadi komane@ilo.org.za34. Khulumani SupportGroupLe Roux Pierre Gideon info@khulumani.net35. Kungwini LocalMunicipalityMmisi Jacqueline mnyathe@kungwinimun.co.za22 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Institution Last Name First Name Contact36. Limpopo Office of thePremierMakhuvele Regina makhuveler@premier.norprov.gov.za37. Limpopo ProvincialArchivesNkatingi Jabu NkatingiJ@sac.norprov.gov.za38. Lusito Uamusse Abel C lusito@webmail.co.za39. Lusito Uamusse Khanyi Ellen lusito@webmail.co.za40. MAPPP-SETA Khota Charlotte N charlotte@mappp-seta.co.za41. Mpumalanga Deptof Culture, Sport & Sedibe Doris Ntombi dnsedibe@nel.mpu.gov.zaRecreation42. National Archives ofSouth AfricaDambuza Karabo KaraboD@dac.gov.za43. National Archives ofSouth AfricaDikeledi Khukhele dikeledik@dac.gov.za44. National Archives ofSouth AfricaHickey Margaret Margaret.hickey@dac.gov.za45. National Archives ofSouth AfricaKhanye Thabang Thabang.khanye@dac.gov.za46. National Archives ofSouth AfricaKirkwood Clive Clive.kirkwood@dac.gov.za47. National Archives ofSouth AfricaKwatsha Noluthando Noluthando.kwatsha@dac.gov.za48. National Archives ofSouth AfricaMadiope Mothiba Mothiba.madiope@dac.gov.za49. National Archives ofSouth AfricaMaraba Lesetja Lesetja.maraba@dac.gov.za50. National Archives ofSouth AfricaMulaudzi Lufuno Lufuno.mulaudzi@dac.gov.za51. National Archives ofSouth AfricaNdzena Lwazi lwazi.ndzena@dac.gov.za52. National Archives ofSouth AfricaNene Elizabeth Elizabeth.nene@dac.gov.za53. National Archives ofSouth AfricaPretorius Jo Jo.Pretorius@dac.gov.za54. National Archives ofSouth AfricaSeko Jeanette A M Jeanette.seko@dac.gov.za55. National Film Video andSound ArchivesBrewis Luana Luana.brewis@dac.gov.za56. National Film Video andSound ArchivesMoses Trevor T Trevor.moses@dac.gov.za57. National Film Video andSound ArchivesMoyana Dan Mgoni Dan.moyana@dac.gov.zaArchives at the Crossroads | 23

Institution Last Name First Name Contact58. National Film Video andSound ArchivesNamanyana Motunye S Simon.namanyana@dac.gov.za59. National Film Video andSound ArchivesNkhuna Winnie Winnie.nkhuna@dac.gov.za60. National Film Video andSound ArchivesShinners Melisia Melisia.shinners@dac.ac.za61. National HeritageCouncil (NHC)Callinicos Luli luli@icon.co.za62. National HeritageCouncil (NHC)Simelane Sibongile Sibongile@nhc.org.za63. National ResearchFoundation (NRF)Bossenger Tracy Tracy@nrf.ac.za64. National ResearchFoundation (NRF)Levieux Candice Candice@nrf.ac.za65. National ResearchFoundation (NRF)Selebi Esther esther@nrf.ac.za66. National ResearchFoundation (NRF)Selematsela Daisy daisys@nrf.ac.za67. Nelson Mandela CentreKatuuof Memory and DialogueShadrack skatuu@nelsonmandela.org68. Nelson Mandela CentreArendsof Memory and DialogueEthel ethel@nelsonmandela.org69. Nelson Mandela CentreQabakaof Memory and DialogueBoniswa boniswa@nelsonmandela.org70. Nelson Mandela Centreof Memory and Dialogue RamoupiNeo Lekgotlalaganeor@nelsonmandela.org71. Nelson Mandela CentreVenterof Memory and DialogueSahm sahmv@nelsonmandela.org72. Nelson Mandela CentreSalehof Memory and DialogueRazia razias@nelsonmandela.org73. Nelson Mandela CentreHenriquesof Memory and DialogueHeather heather@nelsonmandela.org74. Nelson Mandela CentreWarrenof Memory and DialogueNaomi naomiw@nelsonmandela.org75. Nelson Mandela CentreRibaof Memory and DiaogueZanele zaneler@nelsonmandela.org76. North West Library,Information and Archives Madumo Kepi kmadumo@nwpg.gov.zaServices77. North West ProvincialArchivesBoyce Lazarus lboyce@nwpg.gov.za78. North West ProvincialArchivesJimla Edward N jimla@webmail.co.za24 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Institution Last Name First Name Contact79. North West ProvincialArchivesMabe Murvin A mamabe@nwpg.gov.za80. North West ProvincialArchivesMadito Boitumelo I Imadito@nwpg.gov.za81. North West ProvincialArchivesMothusi Tlotlego mothusit@nwpg.gov.za82. North West ProvincialArchivesThipe Manne Seth83. North West ProvincialArchivesTities Victor vtities@nwpg.gov.za84. Origins Centre Lebele Mpho Gift mpholebele@gmail.com85. Paper Conservator Vajifdar Monique mvdhc@worldonline.co.za86. Researcher McLeod Robert Michael robnsha@worldonline.co.za87. Reutloile CommunityOrganisationMakhetha Masechaba reutloileorg@yahoo.com88. Rosa LuxemburgFoundationStephan Gerd-Rudiger Stephan@rlf-sa.org.za89. SANCO & Mary’sCommunity CentreBapela Naniki maryc@mail.co.za90. South AfricanBroadcastingAssmann Ilse Assmanni@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)91. South AfricanBroadcastingGoba Wandile gobaw@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)92. South AfricanBroadcastingJack Madia madiamj@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)93. South AfricanBroadcastingMahlangu Alfred Buti mahlanguab@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)94. South AfricanBroadcastingMalindiga Shadrack M malindigasm@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)95. South AfricanBroadcastingMonyai Nare monyainb@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)96. South AfricanBroadcastingCorporation (SABC)Nombele Nolubabalo nombelen@sabc.co.za97. South AfricanBroadcastingCorporation (SABC)SeetsiMakhosazanaSybilseetsims@sabc.co.zaArchives at the Crossroads | 25

Institution Last Name First Name Contact98. South AfricanBroadcastingTshabalala Ntsoaki Linah tshabalala@sabc.co.zaCorporation (SABC)99. South African HistoryArchive (SAHA)Allan Kate foip@saha.org.za100. South African HistoryArchive (SAHA)Jacobs Sam sfj@saha.org.za101. South African NationalParksMakhura Moss mossm@sanparks.org102. Standard Bank Conradie Barbara barbara.conradie@standardbank.co.za103. Standard Bank Letitia Myburgh letitia.myburgh@standardbank.co.za104. The Presidency Mpeiwa Thanyani thanyani@po.gov.za105. UCT Centre for PopularMemoryMeyer Renate Renate.meyer@uct.ac.za106. UCT Manuscripts andArchivesHart Lesley Lesley.hart@uct.ac.za107. UCT Manuscripts andArchivesNtabankulu Isaac isaac.ntabankulu@uct.ac.za108. University of KwaZuluNatalWright John wright@ukzn.ac.za109. UNISA Coetzee Marie coetzma@unisa.ac.za110. University of Fort HareLibrarySoul Yolisa ysoul@ufh.ac.za111. University of Limpopo Josias Esther estherj@ul.ac.za112. University of PretoriaArchivesStrydom Bronwyn Bronwy.strydom@up.ac.za113. UWC Robben IslandMayibuye ArchivesYako Simphiwe syako@uwc.ac.za114. UWC Robben IslandMayibuye ArchivesZulu Esther ezulu@uwc.ac.za115. Wits Dep ViceChancellor, ResearchProf Bozzoli Belinda bozzolib@vco.wits.ac.za116. Wits History Department Kros Cynthia Cynthia.kros@wits.ac.za117. Wits School of Art Pyper Brett Brett.pyper@wits.ac.za118. Wits University Phachane Lesego Lesego.phachane@wits.ac.za119. Wits University Barstow Oliver Oliver.barstow@gmail.com120. Wits University Longwe Lenore Lenore.longwe@wits.ac.za121. Wits University ArtGalleriesCharlton Julia Julia.Charlton@wits.ac.za122. Wits University ArtGalleriesRankin-Smith Fiona Fiona.Rankin-Smith@wits.ac.za26 |“National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Speakers and Chairs Registration |Institution Last Name First Name Contact1. I-Forest Abbot Brad brad@i-forest.info2. Origins Museum Blundell Geoff3. Nelson MandelaCentre of Memory Dangor Achmat achmatd@nelsonmandela.organd Dialogue4. National Archivesand Records ServiceDominy Graham graham.dominy@dac.gov.za5. University of theWitwatersrandHamilton Carolyn hamiltonc@gsh.wits.ac.za6. Nelson MandelaCentre of Memory Harris Verne verne@nelsonmandela.organd Dialogue7. South AfricanHuman Rights Hatang Sello shatang@sahrc.org.zaCommission8. University of theWestern CapeHayes Patricia pmhayes@mweb.co.za9. Hector PietersonMuseumHlongwane Ali alih@joburg.org.za10. Minister of Arts andCultureJordan Pallo11. University of theWitwatersrandMangcu Xolela xmangcu@telkomsa.net12. Oral HistoryAssociation of South Mokgoatsana Sekgothe sekgothem@ul.ac.zaAfrica13. University of Namibia Namhila Ellen c/o glehmann [glehmann@unam.na]14. Heritage Practitioner Prosalendis Sandra sandraprosalendis@gmail.com15. University of theWestern CapeRassool Ciraj crassool@uwc.ac.za16. Constitutional CourtJudgeSachs Albie sachs@concourt.org.za17. University ofKwaZulu-NatalSithole Jabulani sithole@ukzn.ac.za18. Nelson MandelaMuseumSolani Noel mandelamuseum10@intekom.co.za19. Foundation forHuman RightsSooka Yasmin YSooka@fhr.org.za20. Western CapeProvincial Archives Tshirado Nkhumbudzeni ntshirado@pgwc.gov.zaService21. University of London Tyacke Sarah styacke@blueyonder.co.ukArchives at the Crossroads | 27

Appendix 4: Regional Archival Platform Proposal Summary, April 2007BackgroundAcross 2005-7 the Constitution of Public Intellectual Life Research Project(University of the Witwatersrand) hosted a focus on the relationship betweenarchive and public deliberation. This took the form of a series of papers analyzingthat relationship 1 as well as a public lecture series. 2 The findings and discussionswhich resulted from these initiatives chimed with other indications of an urgentneed for a region-wide intervention in the area of archives. The Project thenundertook a process of scoping a possible initiative in the area of archivesdesigned to stimulate and support the sector. The current proposal, yet in draftform, is the product of that scoping exercise and a widespread process ofdiscussion with various archival stakeholders.The Key IssuesThe processes described above highlighted four important issues and linkedneeds:1. A Changing Concept of Archive: The very concept of archive that we arecurrently working with is not a fixed one, but one that is undergoing intensivetheoretical, epistemological and political rethinking. Most of us are aware ofsome of the aspects of that rethinking, typically the aspects that are closest toour own area of work. Most of us are also aware that other forms of rethinkingare going on elsewhere. Collectively we need a mechanism that assists us inknowing as much as possible about the kind of rethinking that is going onoutside our own immediate areas of work, without us having each to find thatout for ourselves. And we need forums in which to discuss these developmentsand their implications.We operate in a new world in which the public, and the knowledge system, arehungry for new kinds of archives capable of supporting new and very differentavenues of enquiry. We face a significant challenge in setting the agenda forthe emergence of those archives. We need to facilitate and support that process.1. See C.Hamilton, “Archival Sepulchres and Memory Theatres,” essay for the Nelson MandelaFoundation, 2005; C. Hamilton and X. Mangcu, “Freedom, Public Deliberation and the Archive,”paper presented to the South African Historical A ssociation, June, 2006; C.Hamilton, “Archive andDiasporic Knowledge,” paper for the Workshop on African and African Diasporic Knowledges, UCT,October, 2006; X.Mangcu, “Public Deliberation and Political Culture: Freeing Up the South AfricanArchive,” opening address to the SAHA Workshop, “Memory, Heritage and the Public Interest,”November 2006, Johannesburg.2. See www.public-conversations.org.za28 | “National System, Public Interest” Open Report

2. The Challenges of Digitisation: There are enormous challenges andopportunities presented by digitization and electronic media. There is a pressingneed for ongoing debate, collaboration and mutual information sharing, andmutual archival accessibility.3. Uneven Capacities in the Archival Repositories: Thirdly, the capacity ofrepositories to provide professional archival services is uneven, while preservationis in a significant number of instances inadequate. It is clear that in part this isbecause there are insufficient resources and forward planning to support necessaryarchival activities. It is also clear that the archival profession no longer attractspassionately committed individuals who invest deeply in the archival project.These problems need to be addressed.4. Archive as Important in Public Deliberation: Fourthly, and perhaps mostimportantly, there is a need for organized, supported, effective public engagementand intervention in the public interest wherever questions of archive are involved.We should note here the role played by archive in public deliberations arounddevelopment, reconciliation, identity politics and democratic accountability.The Idea in BriefThe Archival Platform is conceptualized as a shared space of interaction betweenthree (overlapping) kinds of archival stakeholders:- archival repositories (state archives, private archives, museums, galleries,virtual/digitised collections etc);- memory activists (for example, the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Centreof Memory, the South African History Archive, the Gay and Lesbian Archive);- and archival users (historians, genealogists, curators, artists, writers,amateur researchers etc.).Participating stakeholders would undertake to engage actively in the proposedconversation, meeting annually for a conference on pressing contemporaryissues, participating in sectoral workshops where appropriate, and contributingto and making use of a monthly electronic newsletter and linked on-line forum.The interaction is conceptualized as:- the basis for the development of a new and distinctively postcolonial/postapartheid concept of archive itself;- a conduit for the entry of this new concept of archive both into archivalpractices and into public understanding of archive and of the connectionsbetween archive and politics.Archives at the Crossroads| 29

The interaction is aimed at improving communication across the sector, therebyavoiding duplication of effort, encouraging innovations, synergies, networkingand collaborations; raising issues within the grouping for sustained criticalengagement and, where appropriate, decisive action; and facilitating collectiveinterventions in the public interest. Public engagement would be a central activityof the platform. One of the things that would distinguish the proposed platformfrom, for example ESARBICA, would be a primary concern with public engagementaround questions of archive.At its most basic then, the motivation for the regional Archival Platform consistsof three parts:1. The need for a supported, information-rich, ongoing mutual discussionon the many ways of rethinking the concept archive;2 The need for information rich, mutual discussions of technological issues,geared towards developing synergies, collaborations and policies; and3. The need for intensive well-supported forms of public engagementincluding political campaigns and pressure groups.What happens in each of these domains affects the possibilities and outcomesin the other domains. Ongoing conversation across those three needs is thusvital. There is currently no professional body taking these issues forward. In 2007,in contexts of democracy rather than imperialism, contested knowledges ratherthan simple positivism, and the new media rather than a documentary base, aprofessional society is not perhaps the right body to take these issues forward.The proposal is to raise money for a slim administrative structure to support theproposed Platform: an office, or possibly a virtual office, run by someone ableto anchor the Platform, act as a central point of communication, receivesuggestions, operate as a barometer of developments across the sector, organizean annual conference and smaller workshops, identify topics we need to address,calling attention to emerging crises and mobilizing interventions. Most importantlythe office would take responsibility for the production and dissemination of amonthly electronic newsletter which keeps us all up to date on latest developments:shared project news on an electronic noticeboard, information and debate abouttechnological innovations, alerts to current debates, funding opportunities,summaries of and references to significant theoretical developments, and alinked electronic discussion forum in which we can all participate. It would takeas its primary guiding principles the need to support public engagement,theoretical initiatives and technological strategies.30 | “National System, Public Interest” Open Report

Xolela Mangcu at the presentation of the regional Archival Platform

AcknowledgementsConference Organising Committee:Oliver Barstow, Graham Dominy, Carolyn Hamilton, Verne Harris, Xolela Mangcuand Razia SalehReport Editors:Verne Harris, Oliver Barstow and Razia SalehReport Writer:Carolyn HamiltonLayout and Design:The LibraryPhotography:Oryx Media

National Archives and Records Service of South Africa,Head Office, The National Archivist, Private Bag X236, Pretoria 0001Tel no. 012 323 5300 | Fax no. 012 323 5287The Constitution of Public Intellectual Life Research Project,The Graduate School for the Humanities, Wits University, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg 2050, South AfricaTel no. 011 717 4674 | Fax no. 011 717 4039Nelson Mandela Foundation,Mandela House, 107 Central Street, Houghton, Johannesburg 2041, South Africa.Tel no. 011 728 1000 | Fax no. 011 728 1111