Manager
Records Management Centre
University of South Africa
Johannesburg
South Africa
Ngwanaphalama Margaret More will be presenting on The University of South Africa's 35 million Rand Records Management Programme on Tuesday
She’s young (born in 1974), gifted (two Bachelor degrees) and black, and she’s convinced a bunch of elderly, male academics to spend 35 million Rands (AU$7 million) on a records management project for the University of South Africa, the rainbow republic’s largest tertiary educator of 250,000 distance-learning students.
Meet her for a few minutes and you understand why those learned men of the UNISA Executive Management and Board, lead by former political exile, Dr Matthew Phosa, agreed to every cent she asked. Her eyes glow with enthusiasm at the campaign recall, her voice gets husky with excitement, her miniature dreadlocks gambol at her laughter. She is committed and enthralled.
Margaret More (pronounced “Moray”), called Ngwanaphalam (“baby springbok”) by her parents in their Sepedi language from Northern Sotho, nutritionist and mother of two boys, is Manager of the university’s Records Management Centre. She got the job in 2002 and employs 80 staff. Her admiring peers unsurprisingly call her “the best records manager in the country”.
Her path to recordkeeping reads like pulp fiction. “I’ve always been nosey,” she admits, candidly. “I’m curious how you can set up things.” The inquisitiveness first lead her to dietary studies at the Tshwane University of Technology north of Pretoria where she gained a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and was appointed restaurant manager at UNISA. “Then, I got bored with cooking and setting up menus. There seemed to be no opportunity for growth of a career.”
The university was running into trouble over misuse of its academic qualification documentation. Legal threat was in the air and information control had to change. Margaret heard about the quest for a document manager and “it didn’t sound complicated”, she confides. Her nosiness kicked in again. She applied, was short listed, but realised she needed more than restaurant management knowledge to pass the final interview.
She had an answer to that, too. “I walked into two of the biggest banks in South Africa and asked,” she says. “I thought the banks would know and it seemed like a good way of getting an idea of what was involved. At the Standard Bank I saw a lady consultant who was most kind and helpful.”
Of course, as can be expected in heroic legends, she got the job … and quickly enrolled in the UNISA archival and records management studies course. She attended workshops, joined the South Africa Society of Archivists and short courses in IT document management courses.
Of course, she got an Honours Bachelor’s degree in archival studies and is now facing a Master’s degree.
The next big challenge loomed in 2004. South Africa merged its three largest distance-learning institutions, UNISA, Technikon SA, and Vista University’s Distance Education branch, VUDEC. Recordkeeping tyro “Baby Springbok” had to match the low-tech records of the two incoming educators with the UNISA systems.
The new Records multi-Millionaire launched straight into her up-graded campaign with a records and information audit throughout the new UNISA and its five main hubs in the Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Limpopo and North West provinces.
She is driven by results and committed. “I am going to make sure that the project is a success by staying until it is complete and successfully so.” And she confides another hope: “What I would like to do is give the new system and processes wider application. I want higher education all over South Africa to use them.”
Young, gifted, nosey, an RM Millionaire and a dreamer. What a combination! Like her namesake aerodynamic antelope, “Baby Springbok” leaps seemingly insurmountable hurdles at high velocity and lands squarely on her feet.
Ngwanaphalama Margaret More
Manager
Records Management Centre
University of South Africa
P0 Box 392
UNISA 0003
South Africa
Telephone: +27 (0)11 670-9000
