To Dr Annelie Lotriet Democratic Alliance, Member of Parliament Shadow Minister of Arts and Culture Dear Dr Lotriet, Thank you for your very prompt reply. I am forwarding you my email sent re the very poor service of the SA national Archives NAAIRS website. Currently people nationally and internationally are not able to access this website at all, this site has been very problematic for a very long time. An online discussion by Rootsweb international members is currently taking place re the inability to access this website and the exceptionally poor service they are expereincing. This is a very poor reflection on South Africa, and a problem that surely could have been attended to many months ago. I hope that you will be able to look into this matter and ensure that those persons/departments responsible for this site have the system repaired as a matter of urgency, and are held accountable for the proper function and maintenace of this very important site. Thank you, Yours sincerely, Marilyn Lilley ----- Original Message ----- From: Marilyn Lilley To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 10:41 AM Subject: Unable to access NAAIRS website, system failure Dear Minister L Xingwana, cc Portfolio Committe Arts and Culture DA spokesperson on Arts and Culture All national and international Rootsweb members Please could you urgently attend to the system failure of the NAAIRs website, as people nationally and internationally are not able to acces this site in order to trace their ancestors. At present I am not able to get onto this site, and apparently a problem with very limited intermittent access has persisted for at least a year according to national and international users of this site. At present this site is not accessible at all. A discussion online has been taking place amongst international members of rootsweb about the poor service from the South African National Archives NAAIRS site and about the inability to acces this site in order to trace their ancestors. This is poor service and a poor reflection of the SA national Archives to the national and international community and needs to be attended to as a matter of urgency. The public's access to information is being compromised , and finding information about ancestors is a very imortant matter. People in South Africans are well aware of the importance of ancestors. Many people have tried to make contact with NAAIRS often without any response, or in this case the complaint sent 23rd August 2010 and reply recieved 17th October 2010. 'We are very sorry about being disappointed by our system. Please keep on trying and someday you will be able to get on it and retrieve what you are looking for. Yours Sincerely Mologadi Mamabolo (Ms) Please see the content of my letter below sent to NAAIRS. In addition, the email to [email protected] is returned to me, Undeliverd Mail, it appears that this information on the website is incorrect and has not been updated.<[email protected]>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table (in reply to RCPT TO command) I hope that you will attend to the system failure of the NAAIRS website and above web address as a matter of urgency. Yours sincerely, Marilyn Lilley ----- Original Message ----- From: Marilyn Lilley To: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 4:09 PM Subject: problematic access to NAAIRS site and ancestor research Attention:NAAIRS I am having trouble getting onto the NAAIRS site, a problem also experienced by many other people around the world. This mail below from one of the many thousands of rootsweb members is a result of lengthy communications by users of this site around the world about the poor service and problematic system and lack of access to the NAAIRS site. Please could the comments by Mologadi Mamabolo (Ms)be clarified. What does 'someday' mean? Is the matter being attended to? This problem has existed for a long time. This is poor service and a poor reflection of the SA national Archives to the public nationally and internationally and needs to be attended to as a matter of urgency. The public's access to information is being compromised , and finding information about ancestors is a very imortant matter. People in South Africans are well aware of the importance of ancestors. Please could you advise me when the system will be upgarded / rectified for all those nationally and internationally who are trying to access NAAIRS in tracing their ancestors. Yours sincerely, Marilyn Lilley. [email protected] This below is from a member of [SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN] My reply from S.A. National Archives After having taking a fellow genealogist advice I sent the S.A. National Archives a paste and copy of their lovely red notice which tells one "All Search Manger User ID's in use. Please try again later" notice on the 23rd August 2010. This is the reply I received today, 17th October 2010. Your email dated 23 August 2010 re Web use of National Archives has reference. We are very sorry about being disappointed by our system. Please keep on trying and someday you will be able to get on it and retrieve what you are looking for. Yours Sincerely Mologadi Mamabolo (Ms) The comment SOMEDAY you will be able to get on it I found to be most amusing. Obviously even the staff now appreciate what a slack system they run or they don't realise that family history is important to a number of people and SOMEDAY may be too late !! ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message