/ 15 March 1996

Controversy hits archives Bill

Gaye Davis

CHANGES to the National Archives Bill that bring under political control decisions on what records should be kept and what should be destroyed have caused an outcry among archivists and historians who helped draft the new law. But a clash with Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Dr Ben Ngubane may yet be averted.

In the face of an avalanche of criticism, he indicated this week he was “not wedded” to the amendment, which was made before the Bill — drawn up by a national consultative forum — came before a parliamentary portfolio committee.

The initial draft put the power to make decisions on what should be kept and what destroyed firmly in the hands of professionals, to prevent a repetition of past abuses, when records were destroyed for political ends.

Members of the consultative forum, including the South African Society of Archivists (Sasa), bombarded the portfolio committee with objections and complained that the minister had not consulted the forum before making the changes.

“The argument for a new Bill was that professionals, rather than politicians, should be in charge of deciding what should be kept and what should be destroyed,” said Sasa chair Barbara Conradie. “Now it’s been changed back.”

Ngubane said he made the amendments to provide the Bill with “an integrated mechanism for accountability” with regard to the destruction of records.

He said the Bill did not provide for political control of records disposal, but recognised the need for political responsibility by establishing the principle of concurrency — joint responsibility for decisions by the minister, the national archivist and the National Archives Commission. Ngubane noted the “serious concerns” that had been raised. Ministerial accountability to Parliament and to Cabinet was necessary, but possibly there were other ways of achieving this, he said.