June 2013 - Department of Defence

historyS A S O L D I E RCentre since the beginning of her longcareer in the DOD. She joined the DODon 1 May 1973 at a time when womenwere utilised as administration clerksand support personnel.Ms Jooste said that she had anenormous interest in SouthAfrica’s military history: “I neverfelt marginalised; I was part ofthe organisation and was givenacknowledgement.” Asked howchange had affected her career, shereplied: “I cannot look back withregrets, but instead I can look forwardoptimistically. Change based onprinciple is progress, but constantchange without principle becomessomething else. I looked forward inmy career to whatever came withpositivity.”Elaborating on how theDocumentation Centre has grownover the years, Ms Jooste said thatgood organisations that survivethe longest do so not believing inexcellence only, but in constantimprovement. She added thatchallenges will always be there, butthrough will-power and strengthwe keep marching forward.Her career highlights includedimplementing sound principles,practices and procedures withregard to preserving DOD recordspermanently, and participatingin the planning, design andimplementation of records andinformation systems to ensure thatrecords management principles aremaintained. Ms Jooste said: “Weare proud to contribute on requesttowards the reconstruction of SouthAfrica’s military past, and I amprivileged to have been afforded theopportunity to travel internally andabroad.”Her concluding message to themembers of the DocumentationCentre was: “With patience andextraordinary perseverance all thingsare attainable and the only way tosucceed in anything is to give iteverything.”To the women in the DOD she saidthat they all have dreams and thattheir purpose in life may not alwaysbe obvious, but they should alwaysremember that they havethis purpose.Documentation Centre who celebrated the 45 th anniversary of the DOD archives.J U N E 2 0 1 3 • 33