The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) have taken the first steps in the R200-million digitisation of South Africa’s 286-million civil records – 90% of which are in paper format.

DHA and Stats SA have combined their resources to digitise birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as identity applications and naturalisation and permitting records.

Starting with the birth archives, which account for around 110-million of the documents dating back to the late 1800s and which are currently stored across four storage warehouses, the parties aim to scan and collate some 5.8-million of the expansive paper-based records each year.

By the end of two years, at a cost of around R10-million, 11.6-million documents will have been converted into a digital format, noted Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba on Wednesday.

“Through the use of digital technology from Stats SA, completed forms from Home Affairs with supporting documents will be converted from hard copies to electronic format for easy retrieval and storage, thus ensuring that the data is easily retrieved and securely stored,” explained Statistician-General of South Africa Dr Pali Lehohla.

Unveiling the conversion processes during a media tour of both a Home Affairs storage facility and the new processing centre at Stats SA’s headquarters, in Pretoria, Gigaba said the expansive project would transform the currently inefficient, slow, paper-based department, which is plagued by security risks and opportunities for corruption, into a more secure and efficient digital department.

“Having primarily paper records has become a huge challenge and the space for housing them is scarce and expensive. The time required for staff to physically locate and access individual records means lead times of weeks and months for many transactions, such as amendments and reprints of older birth and marriage certificates,” Gigaba explained.

Despite maintaining a good, detailed filing system, the manual procedures for the retrieval and processing of applications or requests is time-consuming, and paper records are vulnerable to loss, deterioration and fire.

The scanning and conversion of documents into electronic copies by Stats SA will assist in the preservation of all records, and the amendment of records, documents provided by applicants and other departmental and administrative records.

“The documents will be barcoded with unique labels and delivered to Stats SA’s processing centre in batches of 200, upon which they will be scanned and converted into indexed images. The forms will later be scanned and returned to Home Affairs for archiving,” Lehohla told media at the parastatal’s headquarters.

He also noted that a base year of 2000 was determined for the birth records and all birth records post this period up until 2013, when unabridged birth certificates were introduced, were part of the first sets of current records being processed.

Births prior to 2000 have either formally received an ID document or Smart ID card, while those born since April 2013 have already been assigned unabridged birth certificates. Currently, around 1.1-million births are recorded each year.

Stats SA boasts 16 scanners able to scan 200 double-sided pages, equating to 400 images a minute, and around 160 project-focused employees, including several data processors, to index the records.

Gigaba suggested that another 100 contract-based employees could be recruited to assist on the project.

The processing centre currently has the capacity to process around 31 000 records a day.

The records will be indexed by identity number for easy retrieval, with immediate access enabled to a digitised document, irrespective of office location. Further, electronic records can be viewed or accessed simultaneously by more than one staff member, eliminating reliance on single individuals.

In a few years’ time, all civil records and related information will be available digitally.

“Just as the live capture system has revolutionised the process of applying for vital documents, so the digitisation of birth records will revolutionise the national identity system,” said Gigaba.

Digitised records are also expected to be a key enabler of e-governance and to allow for forward, accurate planning for education and other basic social services.

It is the first step in correcting the apartheid era’s fragmented and manual-based system of records management.

Gigaba noted that Home Affairs was currently lobbying for more funds to enable the completion of the project, which is expected to cost around R200-million in total.