December 2011

We wish you a happy holiday season and an inspiring and productive new year!

There’s a curiously reflective stillness at this time of the year – even as festivities rage. A time when it seems that so many of us are looking back at the year that’s passed; congratulating ourselves on battles fought and won; rethinking our strategies and actions; and trying to make sense of the hotly contested issues that have dominated our thinking – and, in some cases, the news headlines.

It’s certainly been a tumultuous year, but for us at the Archival Platform there are three issues that stand out because they affect not just the present, but the past and the future too.

Firstly, we’re concerned about the state of our National Archive and Records Service - and wonder why those responsible for auditing, monitoring and evaluating government performance seem to be silent on the issue of the National Archives Advisory Council – surely someone should have urged the Minister and Department of Arts and Culture to comply with the provisions of the National Archives and Record Service Act of South Africa?

Secondly, we’re concerned about what feels like a general clamp-down on information and worry that the enactment of the Protection of State Information Bill may deepen an already worrying culture of opacity - the secrets, taboos, disavowals and lies that hamper memory work.

Thirdly we’re observing with interest the responses of the courts in relation to the way in which we may or may not think about the past. Whatever the outcome, we are concerned that laws and other actions which limit memory lead to the destruction of the archive and the irrevocable loss of memory. It’s not appropriate for legislation to protect a particular version of the past, any one history, memory or truth. It is possible for legislation to protect the resources on which ongoing memory, and truth processes rely: the archive.

It is necessary to have the resources on hand to argue for or against a particular version of the past. It’s critical to ensure that the information required for the exercise of human rights is preserved. It’s essential that information is accessible and free flowing.

See this month’s Archival Platform editorial, ‘Silences, secrets and memory’.