Page 9 - Professorial Lecture - Prof Nengomasha

and records management (RM), arguing that KM is about innovation and RM,
trustworthiness, both essential for an organisation’s competitive advantage.
Knowledge and records both contribute to an organisation’s knowledge base.
With information so highly valued, the following questions can be asked of the
public service of Namibia: Has records and archives management in the public
service of Namibia been treated as a field requiring specialists capable of
directing and managing the information assets in the form of records? This can be
seen in resource allocation, the calibre of staff hired to manage records and the
necessary legal and regulatory environment. This paper addresses these issues
and attempts to answer the question in the conclusions and recommendations
part of the paper. Ngoepe (2018) points out that electronic records and their
management has become a reality for public sector institutions still grappling
with the management of paper records but need to accept the urgency that
the management and preservation of electronic records demands. Records,
traditionally, have been regarded as being tangible and fixed and by contrast,
electronic information includes unstructured information that organisations
must manage and secure (Johnson, n. d.). Electronic information is constantly
updated, and whilst this is an advantage, it causes a challenge which requires
strategies to ensure that they retain their evidential value.
The establishment of national archival institutions and professional societies and
associations are an indication of the development of records and archives
management (Note, 2020). In France, the national archives was established in
1790; America, 1934; United Kingdom, 2003, South Africa, 1996; Zimbabwe, 1935
and Zambia and Malawi, 1947. The National Archives of Namibia (then called
South West Africa Archives Depot) was established in 1939. These dates show
that Namibia started off early, comparable to most of its neighbours in terms of
the development of records and archives management. This explains Namibia’s
positive development in records and archives management in the 1900s as
reported by Lau (1994) and Taylor (1994). In support of Lau and Taylor, Namhila
(2007, p. 1) lauds Namibia as having “a well-established National Archives with
quite a comprehensive set of government records since the beginnings of
German colonisation in 1884.” However, this positive outlook is marred by findings
of colonial archives bias in collection development Namhila (2007) reports in
particular inadequate documentation of records of the anti-colonial struggle,
made apparent by the computerised catalogue, evidence of the opportunities
brought about by technologies in records and archives management.

As with any profession, standards, theories/models, principles, ethics, and
legislation inform records and archives management practice. Standards include
ISO 15489-1:2016 Information and Documentation – Records Management

Transformation of Records & Archives Management in the Public Service of Namibia 9