Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the department will launch a three-year, R2.4-billion project to digitise its records.

In the process, around 10 000 graduates would be employed, said Motsoaledi on Thursday.

During his State of the Nation Address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa said 10 000 unemployed graduates would be recruited to assist Home Affairs in capturing civil records.

Motsoaledi said it would cost the department R2.4-billion over three years.

"Ninety percent of the money is going to pay the other stipend, and the other 10% is going to buy equipment." 

He said the graduates would help the department digitise 350-million birth, death, marriage and amendment records dating back to 1895.

Motsoaledi said most of the records were in Gauteng, the North West, and the Western Cape.

"The digitisation of Home Affairs is not a new thing. It is already happening and is being done by [Statistics South Africa]. They are only able to digitise five-million documents per annum. We decided that this will not be able to help us, because every single day they increase," he said.

He said there had been little progress with the current efforts because the department's records increased every year. Birth records, for instance, increased by one-million a year.

"Quite often, South Africans complain bitterly about the delays they experience when they apply for unabridged birth certificates, unabridged marriage certificates, amendments and rectification of their biographic details.

"This is because, to finalise all these applications, Home Affairs officials have to manually search for original documents among these 350-million manual records. Once these records are digitised, Home Affairs officials will have them at a click of a button."

"Part of the [reason for] long queues at Home Affairs is that one person has to come to the office again and again. Once they are digitised, it will be an easy job," Motsoaledi added.

Motsoaledi said the recruitment of record management, information technology and document information, and record management graduates would start on Friday. Graduates would receive three-year employment contracts and be paid between R5 000 and R14 250 a month.

In the first phase, 2 000 unemployed youth would be recruited. Positions would be advertised on Friday, and work would start on 1 November.

In the second phase, 4 000 graduates would be sought. Calls for these positions would go live in October and the successful applicants would start work in January 2023.

Another 4 000 jobs would be advertised in December, and they would start work in April 2023. Graduates can apply on the websites of the home affairs and labour departments. They can also visit labour department offices.

Motsoaledi said 60% of the recruits would be women.