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Minister of Rural Development and Preservation of National Cultural Heritage Abednico Ncube

Tawanda Matanhire Arts Reporter
Minister of Rural Development and Preservation of National Cultural Heritage Abednico Ncube on Wednesday embarked on a familiarisation tour of the National Archives and identified areas that need development at the institution.

The National Archives of Zimbabwe is responsible for documenting and preserving of useful information about the heritage of our country. The Minister acknowledged the importance of the National Archives saying that our heritage should be passed to the future generations.

“History is very important and there is need for future generations to access information and so the need for it to be recorded and preserved,” Minister Ncube said.

“The institution is therefore very vital in insuring the security of our heritage,” he added.

Minister Ncube highlighted the need to improve the conditions of the National Archives as there are electrical and air conditioning faults as well as shelving problems due to lack of funding.

He said that he will do everything in his capacity to make sure that improvements are made.

“There is need to improve on the conditions that are deteriorating at the institution,” he said.

The institution also need to improve on its preservation methods as many of its machines and methods are not abreast with the trends in technology .

Most of the documents are archived on paper and in boxes, which require more space and manpower for shelving and preservation.

National Archives of Zimbabwe director Ivan Murambiwa said there is need to come up with a framework for digitalisation of the records in other sectors of the institution as other institutions are ahead of them yet they are the ones who should set an example to smaller organisations.