Access to archives in South Africa in the first twenty years of democracy: is there transformation or deformation?

Abstract

Even after 20 years of democracy in South Africa access to archives is still facing many challenges and continuously going through process of transformation. This article concentrates on the present state of accessibility of archives in South Africa. It also exposes the limitations of this process caused by the government’s control over them whilst only serving the state in the apartheid era. The exclusion of the general public as users during this time was one of them. The article makes an attempt to compare the specifics of accessing archives between two important chapters of South African history, prior and post-1994.  A short description of the impact of the new legislation developed and implemented after 1994 on the functioning of archives in the new environment is provided. It also presents the significant changes in the role of archival institutions in the new era of democracy in South Africa from the role of traditional records keepers to the more user friendly places more easily accessible to the public. Despite, the great improvement in the accessibility of the archives in South Africa, these institutions still face many daily challenges which impact on their proper functioning. The major issues are: lack of resources, shortage of professional skills, lack of interest and support from the government. They need urgent attention and implementation of some strategies to eliminate those problems. There is still much work to be done in this sector which requires the involvement and cooperation of all country wide archival institutions and plenty of support from the South African government. The contents of the article are based on an extensive literature review. However, the author’s personal professional experience in the archival field has also substantially contributed to the process.