PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES
• Provinces store provincial government records; the NARSSA Act makes provinces responsible for their own records . • Many government departments keep their own records. • Municipalities and local government institutions keep their own records. • AND other government services, such as courts, police, hospitals and clinics, keep their own records.
South Africa’s Constitution gives provincial government exclusive control over “archives other than national archives” (Schedule 5 areas of competence of provinces, SA Constitution). Thus records or material that have not been explicitly designated as “national” can be collected in provincial archives. (The definition of “national” here is not made very clear.)
CASE STUDY: Bantustans in boxes
2. NARSSA does NOT store or keep track of all government records.
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A key result is that former bantustan archives that have survived have mostly been incorporated into provincial archives, in provinces where those bantustans had been located. (Not all bantustan archives have survived or are complete.)
Northern Cape Provincial Archives Service Provincial Archivist: Ms Elizabeth Manong Postal address: Private Bag X5004, KIMBERLEY 8300 Street address: Department of Sport, Arts & Culture Building, 22 Abattoir Road, Ashburnham 8301, Kimberley Tel: (053) 807 4700, (053) 807 4795 E-mail: emanong@ncpg.gov.za
Bantustans in boxes by Laura Philips
Many of the bantustan archives are underresourced, in a very poor state and scattered around the country. The Transkei Archives can be found in Mthatha; the KwaZulu archives in Ulundi; the Lebowa, Gazankulu and Venda archives in the Limpopo Provincial Archives in Polokwane; the Bophuthatswana archives in the North West Provincial Archives in Mafikeng; the Qwaqwa archives in the Free State provincial depository; and the KaNgwane archives in Nelspruit. It is recommended that researchers contact the archives before visiting them. It is unclear where KwaNdebele archives are, though it is likely that parts of the old administrations’ documents have been deposited in Nelspruit. The Ciskei archives are in private hands and very difficult to access.
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Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service Provincial Archivist: Ms Nkiwe Momoti Postal address: Private Bag X9025, CAPE TOWN 8000 Street address: 72 Roeland Street, CAPE TOWN Tel: (021) 466 8100 E-mail: Archives@pgwc.gov.za (for General Correspondence) Records@pgwc.gov.za (for Records Management enquiries) Readroom@pgwc.gov.za (Reading Room Enquiries)
