Municipal and local archives Records of government institutions that operate at local level -- including local police archives, hospital archives, education records, and municipal records -- have historically been kept by the local institutions, and must be accessed through them. Nearly all local records compiled before ten years ago are kept in paper form at the local level. This means that often researchers can find crucial material about historic events in local municipal records -- even where in theory this information has been consolidated into the National Archives.
Over the last few years, government has increasingly generated and stored files in digital form. Many smaller local and rural sites (such as rural clinics) do not yet have the capacity to do this. But as this happens, digitial records will be accessible through national and provincial structures.
by Joel Pearson
In 2015, I was part of a team of PARI researchers that conducted a study at the Mogalakwena Local Municipality, an institution still reeling from recent political turmoil. After patient exercises in persuasion, we were given permission to interview municipal officials and politicians. But we were also given rare access to the strongroom which safeguards the institution’s document collection. This experience brought to light some important lessons for researchers hoping to both access and interpret documents at local government level.
To PAIA or not to PAIA: After we initially requested access to the municipality’s documents, we were told by to launch a PAIA application for specific documents. We read this as an attempt at obstruction: we knew that the process would take too long, and we also didn’t know exactly what documents we were looking for. Our study of institutional dynamics required access to a large body of material. So instead we decided to tread a soft
CASE STUDY
Working with Records in Local Government
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