Redefining Archives in South Africa: Public Archives and Society in Transition, 1990–1996

Verne Harris was with South African's State Archives Service for thirteen years, and is currently a deputy director in the newly-established National Archives (January 1997). He holds an M.A. in History from the University of Natal and the National Diploma in Archival Science from the Pietermaritzburg Technical College. His thesis, "Land, Labour and Ideology: Government Land Policy and the Relations Between Africans and Whites on the Land in Northern Natal 1910-1936," was published in the Archives Year Book for South African History in 1991. A member of the South African Society ofArchivists National Committee since 1988, he has edited the last nine issues of the South African Archives Journal and several other publications, including A Bilingual South African List of Archival Terms and Professional Code for South African Archivists (both with Clive Kirkwood). From 1992 to 1993, he served on the African National Congress Archives Sub-committee, and chaired the Working Committee of the consultative Forum which drafted the South African Bill in 1995. In 1996, he chaired the Drafting Committee of the KwaZulu-Natal Task Group which produced the Provincial Archives of KwaZulu-Natal Bill. His latest monograph, Exploring Archives: An Introduction to Archival Ideas and Practices in South Africa, was published by the National Archives of South Africa in 1997.