His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa 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. The category of records date back to 1895 which necessitate care and reliable systems that will bear tolerance for the digitisation purposes. These records are in all provinces and the bulk of which are in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape.
Following the announcement made by the President, Home Affairs Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi made subsequent comments on the acquisition of the 10 000 unemployed graduates. This briefing is to update you on the progress that has been made thus far.
It must be noted that the Department is increasingly using technology to improve the way its renders services to the people and to improve the security of our documents.
This will be possible through the realization of the secondary objective of the digitization project which seeks to recruit 10 000 unemployed young graduates. These unemployed youth 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.
The Department will partner with relevant stakeholders to facilitate training of these recruits. 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 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 recruitment of the first intake of 2 000 unemployed youth graduates. The adverts for this phase will be available as from tomorrow, 12 August 2022. This cohort will assume duty on 1 November 2022.
Phase 2 – will see a 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.
