National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA)

Established in 1919 in Pretoria, South Africa, National Archives and Records Service of South Africa is an institute whose purpose is to preserve a national archival heritage for use by the government, the people of South Africa and the world at large.

NARSSA boasts of rock paintings by the first people of Southern Africa, the San and Khoikhoi. The paintings date back to thousands of years. The records include paper-based textual records, electronic records as well as audio-visual, photographic and cartographic material. They are kept in access-controlled rooms to ensure their safety and preservation.

A big part of the collected material is of an audio-visual in nature and these records are housed in a controlled environment named the National Archives and Records Service, namely the National Film, Sound and Video Archives (NAFVSA).
With the restructuring of government and government departments in 1994, the NARSSA became a programme of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The NAFVSA also falls under the Department of Arts and Culture. Different formats like films, sound recordings and related materials, such as scripts, posters etc, form the NAFVSA archive. Apart from the audio-visual collection NAFVSA also has slides, posters, scripts, a library and photographs dealing with audio-visual material, as well as information on the arts such as literature, music, sculpting, painting, the theatre etc.

NAFVSA has a reading room where researchers can view or listen to materials. A three-day notice period is required to allow the material to be transferred before putting it on machines to access it. The written permission of a copyright holder is required before any material may be borrowed for duplication.

Any member of the public has a right of access (by appointment) to archives that are older than twenty years.