The National Archives of Zimbabwe in Harare held a ceremony on Thursday 28 January to commission the newly restored and serviced Audio Visual storage cold rooms. This system of temperature control is essential in the preservation of audio visual assets that include 2480 films in reel format, 280 in video format, 5 in DVD format, 1100 audio taped cassettes, 386 audio tape reels, 20 CDs and 604 Vinyl discs.

The commissioning started with a tour of the newly restored cold rooms by Director of the National Archives Mr. Murambiwa, Chief Archivist Mr O Wutete and the rest of the team at the National Archives of Zimbabwe.

The National Archives seeks to be the leading custodian and provider of the documentary heritage of Zimbabwe. Its mission is to acquire, preserve and provide public access to Zimbabwean documentation in whatever format, in an efficient and economic manner.
The National Archives offers unique opportunities that include, exclusive documents of which some of which cannot be found anywhere else in the country. These include archives, manuscripts, newspapers and photographs. The institution’s purpose is built around ensuring the preservation of documentary heritage.

In an endeavour to provide quality service the National Archives approached the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust seeking financial assistance for repair work that was to be carried in the Audio Visual storage cold rooms.

 Vinegar Syndrome tests carried out on the films in March 2009 showed that the majority of the films were infected and were at various levels of deterioration.
Audio-Visual materials are supposed to be stored in controlled temperature and humidity environments. At the time of the request for assistance all three cold rooms were not functioning and required repairs.

Speaking at the commissioning and representing the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Board Chairperson Mrs Farai Mpofu said we are building public value by enabling free cultural artistic expression of all Zimbabweans and preservation of cultural heritage.

 We are confident that the National Archives will continue to be custodians of our archival material working alongside other repositories of national assets such as the National Museums and National Galleries among others.

The servicing of the cold rooms was an essential move for the National Archives and the important documentation that they house.Officially commissioning the Cold rooms Honourable KCD Mohadi Co- Minister of Home Affairs said that when my Ministry was alerted to the looming crisis we quickly endorsed the National Archives Directors proposal for a secure partnership with the Culture Trust. Today is thus a public function to acknowledge and give thanks to that critical intervention.

He went on to say that he encourage other potential partners to take cue from the Culture Fund gesture and work towards saving Zimbabwe’s rich cultural heritage.