The Department of Home Affairs plans to digitalise its records and will recruit 10 000 unemployed youth graduates to work on the project.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says the department has more than 350-million civic paper records relating to birth, marriages, deaths and amendments, dating back to 1895, which need to be digitised. They are on all the provinces, with the bulk in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape.

To help with the digitisation of these records, the department is recruiting 10 000 unemployed young graduates who are qualified in Information Technology; Document, Information and Records Management, obtained from Institutions of Higher Learning (Universities, Universities of Technologies, TVETs).

The project will run over a three-year period, effective from November 2022 until October 2025, and the people employed will sign a contract for the full period.

Successful applicants will be paid a stipend ranging from R5 000 for entry-level positions to R9 500 for technical support positions and R14 250 for management positions.

“The Department will partner with relevant stakeholders to facilitate training of these recruits,” Motsoaledi says. “Training offered will be relevant to job for which they are contracted to perform, continuous learning and development interventions will be provided to enhance their employability and/or allow them to leverage on entrepreneurial opportunities beyond the project.”

The recruitment will be done in collaboration with the Department of Employment and Labour and will be phased in between now and April 2023.

Applicants can register and apply online through the DHA and DEL websites, or can visit their closest Labour Centre of the Department of Employment and Labour.