Municipal and local records

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.

Working with Records in Local Government

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

CASE STUDY: Local government records

path of persuasion, trying to reassure officials that our project was purely academic. Going this route meant spending long hours waiting around the municipality, becoming part of the furniture and developing friendly relationships with the many officials who walk along the corridors.

Be sensitive of the context:

A request for documents can attract immediate suspicion. This is because local municipalities are zones of contest: between different political factions; between competing officials and departments; or between different rungs of government. Documents can prove key resources in these battles. Official documents are routinely deployed in disciplinary hearings or court battles. Officials are also wary of the presence of auditors who sift through documents for any sign of irregularity. At Mogalakwena, forensic auditors hired by competing factions had proved especially problematic, at times arriving without warning and walking out with large bundles of documents. It took some time to establish our intentions and assure officials that our job was not to hunt for wrong-doers or further factional agendas, but rather to understand institutional dynamics in a systemic sense. We had to give assurances that we would maintain anonymity, and offer officials the opportunity to read our findings before publication.

Patience is a virtue:

To ease tensions about our presence at the municipality, we quickly learned that we needed to be as clear as possible about the aims of our project, and maintain a calm and friendly demeanour. This can be difficult when time is short and research progress is slow. But insisting too strongly on a ‘right’ to see the documents can come across as abrasive and suspicious, and will probably result in access being shut off. Officials have plenty of other issues on their plates, so it is crucial to be patient and respectful.

Learn organisational process and hierarchy:

Municipalities are governed by endless protocol, both formal and informal. Before rushing in with demands for access to documents, it is crucial to understand how lines of power and rituals of access work in the institution. For us, that meant making formal introductions to the Municipal Manager and Mayor, who stand at the head of the administrative and political wings of the municipality. A formal letter of request from your institution or university can provide significant legitimacy. At Mogalakwena, we agreed to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which governed our activities at the municipality. The terms of the MoU were never strictly revisited after signing, but the document itself smoothed the way for our entry.

Treat officials as professionals:

Each department – and each of the divisions that fall within them – has its own sense of propriety, and one can never simply arrive with an order from ‘the top’. Records falls under the Corporate Support Services department, so it is advisable to introduce oneself to the Manager of the Department, explain the project and together find a schedule and mode of working, that will produce minimal disruption to day-to-day activities. If you need to take photographs, be up front about this. If you are secretive, it will be noticed. Finally, records clerks can prove your strongest allies. They can teach you a great deal about the role that documents play in the institution and how to access particular records.

Defer to institutional autonomy:

Through engagements with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), we were able to acquire a letter instructing municipalities in Limpopo to open their archives to us. We tried to use this to gain access at another municipality, but it was met with some offence by officials there who insisted that they didn’t need to take instructions from a national department and could ‘make our own decisions’. Officials cling doggedly to their autonomy, and it is generally best to work within the institution itself to gain access.

standardised regulations govern the flow of documents within the state, government institutions generally develop their own idiosyncrasies. Records clerks can help fill you in on how documents move through the institution. It is also important to remember that while the records division aims to collect all documents, many still remain outside of the strongroom - on computers or desks around the institution. Sometimes it is necessary to speak to managers in other departments and request documents directly.

Documents are weapons:

When interpreting documents, it is crucial to understand how they function within the context of local government. Through working with the wide array of paperwork produced and circulated within the institution, we learned how official documents were directly tied into the political disputes that had recently unfolded at the municipality.

Documents functioned as weapons in the hands of opposing political factions. Each used documents to try and establish proof that they were ‘defenders of good governance’ fighting ‘corrupt looters’. Documents therefore need to be read within the political context in which they were produced and circulated, and not taken at face-value. Understanding who produced a particular document, how it moved through the institution, and what contestations it may have attracted is absolutely crucial in doing the interpretive work. Speaking to officials revealed the backstories and social lives of documents.

Download the report “Mogalakwena Local Municipality in South Africa: An Institutional Case Study”

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