Role players gather for annual archivist conference in Mpumalanga
The archivist conference was attended by academics and practitioners from various institutions across the world, who came to the province to share their knowledge.
Proper management of records is a critical aspect of every organisational business, whether public or private.
This was mandated by the National Archives and Records Service Act no 43 of 1996 as amended, and the Companies Act, respectively. The annual Archives and Records Management Conference was hosted by the South African Society of Archivists (Sasa) in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).
The conference was held at the TUT Mbombela Campus, from July 6 to 7. It was hosted under the theme ‘Information hygiene in archives and records management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era’.
According to Sasa, falsification of information is rife across various platforms, including those created and kept through social media. The 2023 conference brought together academics and practitioners from various universities and industry organisations from both public and private institutions across the world to share information on best practices.
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Brian Manyaka of the Mpumalanga Records Management Forum said the conference is important to the province. “Records management is very important for the survival of every institution or organisation, because it is the nerve centre. Archives play a major role in guiding the future generation.”
According to him, archives can be used as guidance, to know direction and purpose. “You go to our local government, and our records in several institutions are not well kept. If the information was correctly stored, it will be easily retrieved and be given. As Mpumalanga, we will build from this conference.”
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Inkosi Jongisilo Pokwana ka Menziwa, Sasa’s chairperson, said in the near future, all documents will be stored digitally. “A computer will already be coded to classify and allocate those documents in terms of file planning. There will be no work for those who still want to use papers. They need to improve their game to avoid disruption and getting kicked out of the system. We want our archivist and record managers to move with the times.”
