Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the cases of “delayed and denied” justice that resulted from a lack of or poor record-keeping in the South African courts and police service with a view to encouraging proper records management. Proper records management plays a significant role in supporting the justice system. Records provide the critical evidence that a particular action or transaction took place and can be used as evidence in a court of law. Without reliable and authentic records, government cannot administer justice and, as a result, offenders can be set free while the victims are denied justice. Design/methodology/approach – Utilising content analysis, this study extracted print media articles (2000-2012) relating to the “records and justice system” from the South African Media database, which is one of the databases hosted by the South African Bibliographic and Information Network. The study selected cases reported in the media to conduct follow-up interviews with a policeman, lawyer and judge to discover the implications of the unavailability of required records in court cases. Furthermore, access was given to three selected cases that were given high profile in the media and these cases were analysed to find out what the final verdict in each case was. Findings – Results of the study suggest that some criminal cases were withdrawn due to missing dockets or cases not properly registered. In some instances, records were reconstructed, resulting in the travesty of justice. The study concludes by arguing that if records are not accounted for, lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates could dispute the authenticity of records. As a result, justice for victims would be delayed and ultimately denied while the perpetrators are freed. Research limitations/implications – The findings and recommendations of this study may go a long way in helping courts in South Africa to manage records properly to support the justice system. Furthermore, the study is a useful compilation of the importance of missing records for social purposes. Originality/value – In an attempt to show the role of records management in the administration of justice in South Africa, this study used a triangulation of data collection tools. This is a new attempt, especially in the South African context. Previous studies in southern Africa only looked at the management of records in supporting justice system.

Background: Knowledge retention plays an important role in combating organisational knowledge loss. However, some organisations, including mining companies, still lose organisational knowledge because of employees’ retiring, resigning, downsizing, attrition and so on. This leaves the organisations with a shortage of qualified senior experienced employees to meet production needs, which has a negative impact on the running of the operational functions on a day-to-day basis. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge retention strategies in a platinum mine in the North West Province of South Africa. Method: The study used qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Results: The key findings of the study revealed that although the mine has a knowledge retention policy, some of the employees are not aware of its existence and there was not enough support of knowledge retention initiatives from the management. Conclusion: The study concludes by arguing that having knowledge retention policy, strategies and initiatives on paper but failing to implement is as good as not having it. The organisation needs to implement knowledge retention policy in order to benefit from the knowledge retention initiative.

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This article reports on an examination of the uptake and status of open access journals (OAJs) in Africa based on the listing of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The article addresses the questions of the pattern of distribution of OAJs in Africa and examines the distribution of the oldest closed access journals that have migrated to the open access (OA) platform; the distribution of the publishers; and the licensing regime and publication languages. We first downloaded all the content of the DOAJ into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, after editing. For data on publishers, the list of publishers was pasted into the MS Excel spreadsheet and physically sorted. As at November 2014, the total volume of OAJs globally registered in the DOAJ was 10 152, including those born closed which have now migrated to the OA platform. Globally, Europe produced the largest number of journals, followed by Asia, North America, South America and Africa. South America produced the highest number of journals per country. Egypt had the highest number of journals through the activities of one organisation, Hindawi. A journal of African origin is the oldest closed access journal in the DOAJ database; while corporations dominate OAJ publishing. Generally, OA uptake in Africa is considerably low. We suggest that the DOAJ should be proactive in sensitising publishers and other stakeholders in Africa about their services and the benefits, and how to include their journals in the database.