The State of Electronic Records Management in South Africa: An Overview

Abstract

The rapid development of information and communication technologies, particularly over the last two decades, has resulted in the automation of the office. This automation, whether it be in the form of word processing applications, intra-nets, e-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI) or e-commerce, has heralded the arrival of the electronic record. “Within the next decade, almost all organizational records created in our society will be made and communicated electronically.”

In South Africa the phenomenon of the automated office with its proliferation of electronic records has become a reality as well. In both the public and private sectors business records are being produced in electronic format, with the electronic form increasingly representing the only evidence of transactions being undertaken. As such it has become imperative that appropriate records management programmes be put in place if our electronic memory is not to become increasingly unmanageable and in fact lost.

Within this context, the author endeavours to provide an overview of the state of electronic records management in South Africa, to highlight some of the challenges faced locally and to propose possible ways forward.




ESARBICA Journal Vol.20 2001: 62-70