The Department of Home Affairs has started moving away from the old system of paper records to digital storage in partnership with Statistics SA.
The department has 286-million records‚ 90% on paper.
At the launch of the digitisation of birth records in Pretoria on Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said most of the records were of births‚ marriages‚ deaths‚ ID applications‚ naturalisation and permits, and they dated back to the late 1800s.
Gigaba said having records primarily on paper was a huge burden because the space need to house them was 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 said.
Paper records were vulnerable to loss‚ deterioration and fire‚ despite the care with which they were stored.
"Digitising these records mean we will be able to access records quickly."
He said transactions that now took weeks would be completed for clients on the spot. One example was issuing of birth certificates.
Gigaba said modernising the department meant moving from a paper-based department with its inefficiency, slow processes‚ security risks and opportunities for corruption to a digital department that was efficient‚ fast and secure.
Digital records would mean more efficient business processes and be easier and probably cheaper to store.
Gigaba said the department aimed to digitise 5.8-million birth records a year. Digitisation meant immediate access to a digitised document regardless of where the office was.
"Electronic records can be viewed/accessed by more than one person simultaneously. This eliminates the reliance on individuals for knowledge as the document is accessible by multiple staff," he said.
TMG Digital
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