“Two VUT Chemical Engineering students, Ms Olerato Moobi and Mr Ofentse Mafafo, have been accepted into the Winter University of Engineering Sciences at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in Russia, taking place from 24 November to 7 December 2025”
02 December 2025 | Story by: Tshepiso Kaibe | Picture by: Keitumetse Mokgope
4 minutes read time.
The Vaal University of Technology (VUT) Department of Community Engagement, in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Archives, hosted an Archives and Records Management Seminar on Thursday, 27 November 2025, at the VUT Science and Technology Park in Sebokeng. What unfolded was more than a professional gathering; it became a powerful reminder that preserving collective memory is central to governance, accountability and a community’s sense of identity.
Opening the programme, Mr Joseph Norman Radebe, Director of Community Engagement at VUT, welcomed delegates with a deliberate call to action. He reminded participants that community engagement is not symbolic work; it is a commitment to using the intellectual capital of universities to strengthen society. He warned that when historical material is not preserved, “a country without a memory” loses its path, stressing the urgency for municipalities to archive and digitise their histories before they are lost.
That urgency carried through the remarks of Mr Sizwe Mbuyisa, Deputy Director at the Gauteng Provincial Archives, who located the purpose of the seminar squarely in the real challenges facing government institutions. Having only opened its provincial archives in 2018, Gauteng remains the youngest archive system in the country, still understaffed, still building relationships and still confronting the widespread collapse of records management in departments and municipalities.
“Since democracy, records management has collapsed,” he stated plainly, describing a public sector where information is missing, inaccessible or fragmented across offices. This deterioration, he said, directly affects service delivery because “records are the foundation of accountability”.
The seminar’s presentations strengthened this point. Provincial Archives Council representative Ms Zandile Magama outlined how governance, legislation and provincial coordination rely on functional, well-maintained records systems. Her reflections on outdated legislation, limited capacity and the need for alignment across provinces painted a clear picture: strengthening archives is not an administrative exercise, but a governance imperative.
From a different vantage point, the Special Investigations Unit’s Mr Corrie Du Toit illustrated how incomplete or poorly archived documents impede investigations into corruption. His message was frank: “Ninety-nine percent of our work relies on archived documents,” and when archival systems fail, accountability collapses with them.
Contributions from academia further deepened the conversation. UNISA’s Dr Rachel Matlala Mahlatji emphasised that even with limited resources, the professionalism and discipline of records managers shape the integrity of institutional memory. “The system starts with us,” she reminded the audience, urging a renewed culture of compliance, visibility and pride within the profession.
VUT Library Director Ms Biziwe Tembe spoke to the university’s own archival journey, noting that VUT does not yet have a functional archive, despite holding historically significant material related to the Sharpeville, Sebokeng and Boipatong massacres. With new archival posts recently approved, she reaffirmed the university’s commitment to preserving this heritage so that it may serve future research, community engagement and national memory.
The human side of archival work came alive through presentations on public programming and oral history. The Gauteng Provincial Archives team demonstrated how deeply communities benefit when history is returned to them through outreach initiatives. Oral history officer Ms Ntshembo Machebe captured this sentiment with poetic clarity: “A story shared is a memory saved,” she said, reminding attendees that without community voices, the archive remains incomplete.
As the seminar concluded, excellence in records management was acknowledged. The Department of Social Development was awarded as the leading provincial department, while Lesedi Local Municipality was honoured as the top performing municipality in records management for 2025.
For many attendees, the event served as more than an information sharing session; it was a wakeup call. Reflecting on the day, participant Mr Mandla Nangalembe described the seminar as “very successful and informative,” adding that communities often “lack information because we do not have archives and recordings to assist”. Without documented memory, he said, “we cannot pass down information from generation to generation,” commending the decision to bring such programmes directly to the communities that need them most.
Ultimately, the seminar underscored a truth too often overlooked: archives are not dusty vaults of forgotten history, but active instruments of justice, identity, service delivery and community empowerment. And as this gathering demonstrated, rebuilding Gauteng’s archival systems requires more than policies and resources; it demands collective commitment, collaboration and a shared understanding that to safeguard memory is, in fact, to protect the future