By Mickie Langwenya
The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) gears up for proper record keeping and documentation of important national events.
Yesterday, the Ministry held a workshop at Hilton Garden Inn where ministry’s portfolio committee deliberated more on the Eswatini National Archives and Records Services Act of 2021.
Speaking to this publication the Chairman of the Portfolio committee for the ministry of ICT Macford Sibandze said the workshop was basically a knowledge transferring workshop and it was about learning how to keep records and data and how to document be it archives or records.
Sibandze said the kingdom of Eswatini is in need of such a bill with the environment for historical heritage, reference point, issues of authensity, issues of legitimacy, issues of integrity and issues whereby there is a need for the information for future generations.
“The nation has to reach a stage whereby we do what the global world is doing by documenting all information and data into archives records,” said Sibandze.
Minister of ICT Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini said archives and records managements and achieves access policy is not only for today use but also for future use.
She said this bill was crafted through consultations with history departments at University of Eswatini (UNESWA) with whom the ministry has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as with a diverse pool of stakeholders of law enforcement agencies i.e, reporters, historians, students for example.
The Minister said this bill of 2020 comes at a time when information or data is the world’s most priced and jealousy guarded asset. She said as Members of Parliament they ought to agree on the structure and on the accessibility of records issues such as the location of the repository and how accessible the records and manure scripts will be both now and in future.
Our records management policy should be presided by and have been in compliance with a transparency act so as to ensure that authentic and reliability are maintained.
