During the France / South Africa season in 2012 discussions started between the National Archives and the French L’INSTITUT NATIONAL DE L’AUDIOVISUEL (INA) on how to find a solution to this problem. These discussions developed into an agreement between the two institutions, which was signed in Paris, France in December 2013.

In terms of this agreement INA will digitise the Rivonia Trial Dictabelts for the National Archives, at no cost for the National Archives, and would also provide training to South African archivists to allow us to digitise the rest of the dictabelts collections ourselves. The agreement also states that all copyright and intellectual property rights for the Rivonia Trial Dictabelts would remain in South Africa.

On 15 October 2014 the South African Ambassador to France, Ms Dolana Msimang handed over the first batch of Dictabelts to the President of INA in Paris. The final batch was provided to INA in April 2015 and the first batch returned to South Africa. The second batch was returned to South Africa in October 2015.

On 17 March 2016 the French Ambassador to South Africa, Ms Elisabeth Barbier, symbolically handed back the final original dictabelts to Minister Nathi Mthethwa in Courtroom C of the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. This is the courtroom where the original court case took place. The event was also attended by the three surviving trialists: Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni and Denis Goldberg.

It should be stressed that while the original dictabelts have been returned together with the digitised preservation copies of these dictabelts, INA is still working on the digitised restoration copies of the Rivonia Trial. This work should be completed by April 2016. The second phase of the project would be the training of South African archivists to enable the National Archives to digitise all the other dictabelt collections in its possession itself. An agreement to this effect was also signed during the event at the Palace of Justice.