Grave concerns: the state of public cemetery records management in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the relationship between public cemetery management and public records management in South Africa. The intersection of South African cemetery management and archives and records management has not previously been explored and represents a rich area for further research. In order to build a common ground for reflection and recommendations, this article centres on the present regulatory framework for cemetery records management and how records management principles are understood and implemented by cemetery managers. The investigation also draws together beliefs regarding the significance of public cemetery records. While poor records management is known to be an issue in South African public cemeteries, it is treated as less important than burial space shortages, despite representing a useful tool to overcome this primary problem. Cemetery managers have inconsistent beliefs regarding the significance of cemetery records and their role as record keepers. The research points to sufficient cause for intervention by local archivists and records managers.

KEYWORDS:

• Cemetery
• records management
• South Africa
• archives
• significance

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the generous contributions of the teaching staff on the ARM MA programme at UCL for their guidance and support in completing this research.

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare. Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Notes

1. Mbembe, Power of the Archive, 19

2. Ibid, 21.

3. Ibid, 25.

4. Chaddock, Cemeteries as Archives, 21.

5. Harris, Ghosts of Archive, 46.

6. Ibid, 58.

7. A definition for this model is supplied in the discussion of South African legislation and policy frameworks.

8. Rugg, Social justice and cemetery systems.

9. Ngoepe and Makhubela Justice delayed justice denied.

10. Harris, Ghosts of Archive.

11. Government of South Africa, Constitution of South Africa, 1243.

12. WCG, Provincial Archives Records Act, 2.

13. NARSSA, Appraisal Policy Guidelines 3rd, ix.

14. See note 12 above, 3.

15. WCG, Records Policy Western Cape, 2.

16. Upward, Modelling the continuum.

17. See: Ngoepe, Records management identify risks; Records models public sector; Archives without archives; Ngoepe and Ngulube, Records management corporate governance; Ngoepe and Makhubela, Justice delayed justice denied.

18. Ngoepe and Makhubela, Justice delayed justice denied.

19. Hamilton, Archives at the Crossroads.

20. The Archival Platform, STATE OF THE ARCHIVES, 89.

21. Ngoepe, Records models public sector, 348.

22. Hamilton, Archives at the Crossroads, 1.

23. Rugg, Social justice and cemetery systems, 8.

24. Rhodes, Public administration, interpretive turn, 13.

25. UK UNESCO Memory of the World Committee, Seeking significance practical guide.

26. See note 24.

27. Pickard, Research Methods in Information, 16.

28. Another search was conducted with the term ‘burial’ substituted for ‘cemetery’ with no results being returned. Similarly, substituting the term ‘archives’ for ‘records management’ returned a small number of results, but did not yield any relevant results across the same databases. The lack of relevance was determined by assessing the title and abstract of the top 75 articles (returned in order of most to least relevant) looking for all three keywords in one piece.

29. This online research was conducted between June and August 2021.

30. Government of South Africa, Constitution of South Africa.

31. CoCT, Community Survey Cape Town.

32. CoCT, Cemeteries, Capetown.gov.za.

33. WCG, Provincial Archives Records Act.

34. CoCT representative, Email 22 June 2021.

35. CoCT, Records Policy System Procedure.

36. WCARS representative, Email 25 June 2021.

37. Ibid, 2021.

38. Ibid, 2021.

39. SACA representative, Research Interview 7 July 2021.

40. Pickard, Research Methods in Information.

41. CoCT, Cemeteries, Crematoria By-law, 1560.

42. Rugg, Defining place of burial, 272.

43. See note 41 above, 1560.

44. See note 42 above, 460.

45. Cox and Day, Stories Pleasant Green Space, 93.

46. Ibid, 89.

47. Government of South Africa, Births Deaths Registration Act.

48. SALGA, Good Practices in Cemeteries Management, 32.

49. See note 41 above, 1564.

50. Ibid, 1565.

51. Ibid, 1564.

52. Ibid, 1571.

53. Ibid, 1592.

54. CoCT, City Manager, Capetown.gov.za.

55. See note 39 above.

56. See note 33 above.

57. See note 12 above, 4.

58. NARSSA, Appraisal Policy Guidelines, 1.

59. Ibid, 1.

60. Namhila, Content use colonial archives, 118.

61. See note 58 above, 5.

62. See note 15 above, 2.

63. See: CoCT, Records Policy System Procedure; Disposal Paper-based Records; Managing Emails as Records; City’s Records Classification Systems.

64. See note 15 above, 2.

65. Ibid, 7.

66. Ibid, 14.

67. CoCT, Records Policy System Procedure, 6.

68. Ibid, 10.

69. Although beyond the scope of this article, readers may be interested in research into digital record keeping for Zambian cemeteries: Chibuye and Piri, Record Keeping Cemetery Management Lusaka, 2022.

70. See note 12 above, 13.

71. See note 58 above, 72.

72. Ibid, 18.

73. The CoCT representative made no reference to the instruction to transfer cemetery records to archives, dwelling only on the instruction that they must be held permanently.

74. CoCT, Amending Records Classification Systems, 4.

75. SACA representative, Research Interview 7 July 2021.

76. SALGA, salga.org.za.

77. SACA, Creating an African Legacy, 4.

78. Ibid, 4.

79. Ibid, 10.

80. Ibid, 10.

81. Ibid, 10.

82. Ibid, 10.

83. SACA, National Training Workshops, 1.

84. Ibid, 4.

85. SACA, Guidelines Preparation Covid-19, 2.

86. Ibid, 2.

87. SALGA, State Cemeteries SA Cities, 16.

88. Ibid, 16.

89. Ibid, 16.

90. Ibid, 7.

91. Ibid, 11.

92. Ibid, 16.

93. Ibid, 15.

94. Ibid, 15.

95. Ibid, 15.

96. SALGA, Local Government Strategic Framework, 13.

97. Ibid, 14.

98. See note 48 above, 27.

99. Ibid, 9.

100. Ibid, 24.

101. Ibid, 24.

102. Simelane, Thieves and vandals Avalon Cemetery.

103. See note above 42, 273.

104. See note above 45, 93.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie-Louise Rouget

Marie-Louise Rouget is a graduate of the MA programme in Archives and Records Management at University College London (2021). She has a diverse professional background spanning content, records and digital asset management, copywriting, growth marketing and communications. She has lived and worked in South Africa, France, and the Netherlands. Currently based in Amsterdam, Marie-Louise is the content collection lead for a multinational digital learning resource aggregator. Building on the foundation laid by this research, she continues to curate stories and practical guidance around death and burial culture for South African readers.