The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has begun the first phase of its digitisation project that seeks to recruit as many as 10,000 unemployed young graduates. It is part of a drive to digitise Civic paper records and improve service delivery.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during the State of the Nation Address in February 2022 that “the Department of Home Affairs will recruit 10,000 unemployed young graduates for the digitisation of its Civic paper records, enhancing their skills and contributing to the modernisation of citizens services” through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, PES.
The Department has more than 350 million Civic paper records relating to birth, marriages, deaths and amendments. These records are in all provinces and the bulk of which are in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape.
Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that candidates should be 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 (3) year period, effective from November 2022 until October 2025. Successful youth will be paid a stipend ranging from R5,000 for entry-level positions to R9,500 for technical support level positions and R14,250 for manager-level positions.
This cohort will be required to sign a three-year contract linked to the duration of the project.
Training offered will be relevant to the job for which they are contracted to perform, and continuous learning and development interventions will be provided to enhance their employability and/or allow them to leverage entrepreneurial opportunities beyond the project, he said.
The acquisition of the young unemployed graduates will be done in collaboration with the Department of Employment and Labour. Considering the large number to be recruited, the acquisition process will be undertaken in a phased approach as follows:
- Phase 1 – will see the recruitment of the first intake of 2,000 unemployed youth graduates. The adverts for this phase were made available from 12 August 2022. This cohort will assume duty on 1 November 2022.
- Phase 2 – will see further recruitment of 4,000 unemployed youth graduates. The adverts for this phase will be placed during October 2022. This cohort will assume duty in January 2023.
- Phase 3 – will see a further and last recruitment of 4,000 unemployed youth graduates. The adverts for this phase will be placed during December 2022 and January 2023. This cohort will assume duty in April 2023.
Candidates can register and apply online through the DHA and DEL websites.
Parallel to the process of youth acquisition, the department said it is also preparing the workstations and sourcing tools required to ensure that they are able to start digitising records in December 2022.
Once the records are digitised, Home Affairs officials will have access to them at a click of a button and would be able to finalise the applications instantly. This will obviate people having to come to the office on multiple occasions, said the minister.
“During the tenure of the contract, the youth will receive continuous learning and development interventions to improve their skills for optimal performance and to equip them for future employment and /or entrepreneurial opportunities,” the advert for the new roles reads.
Home Affairs digitalisation positions
| Role | Number of Positions | Salary (monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| Runner and Prepper | 320 | R5 000 |
| Re-assembler | 200 | R5 000 |
| Receiving clerk | 50 | R5 000 |
| Driver | 8 | R5 000 |
| Indexer | 800 | R5 500 |
| Scanner | 400 | R5 000 |
| Quality controller | 100 | R6 000 |
| Team leader | 104 | R6 500 |
| Technical support | 12 | R9 500 |
| Manager | 6 | R14 250 |