Mirroring the National Archives of Zimbabwe Act in the context of electronic records

Abstract

Many countries in the Eastern and Southern African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) have embraced electronic government as a matter of priority. This is a programme where government business is conducted through use of different information communication technologies. Unfortunately, many members of the organization, including Zimbabwe, do not have archival legislation that specifically caters for the creation, use, maintenance and disposal of electronic records. This has resulted in records management practitioners resorting to a hit or miss approach when managing electronic records. This paper highlights the inadequacies of the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) Act (1986) as well as the challenges facing records management practitioners in as far as the management of electronic records is concerned. The survey research method was used to collect data specifically on inadequacies of the NAZ Act and challenges faced by information practitioners in using the act to deal with the creation, use, maintenance and disposal of electronic records.