Tracing Citizenship and Genealogy through Digitization: South

Africa’s post apartheid conduit for archival practice and Natural

justice

VUSUMUZI MKHIZE16 January 2017

TABLE OF CONTENT

Vision, Mission, Mandate Digitization & Civil Registration Problem Statement Colonialism Goal Objectives Benefits Risks Statutory and Regulatory Framework Status Quo Priority Records Realizing the vision Approach Methodology Expected Outcomes Risks and Barriers

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VISION & MISSION

VISIONTo Build a Department that provides modern, efficient, cost-effective services that are responsive to the needs of South African Citizens, residents and visitors to our country.

MISSIONTo determine the status of persons and to manage migration in the interest of Constitutional Rights, national Integrity and Development Goals

MANDATE To secure identity and citizenship; to manage immigration securely; and to deliver services

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DIGITIZATION OF CIVIL REGISTRATION RECORDS

Digitization should be understood not just as the act of scanning documents into digital form, but as a series of activities that result in a digital copy being made available/accessible to end users via the Internet or other means for a sustained length of time and for the purposes of establishing genealogy.

Although digitization of Civil Registration records is expensive, much can be gained from digitization of records as it improves the efficiency of core business processes

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PROBLEM STATEMENT Since 1994, South Africa has been trying to de-racialize the ethnically

fragmented apartheid system of citizenship and build National Population register based on the principles of restorative justice and one unitary state.

As a result, the racial birth registration and citizenship policies were amongst the first to be dismantled and replaced in order to restore dignity of the South African people.

In order to restore and protect the identity and status of all citizens and all persons who live on our territory, the Department of Home affairs, in partnership with Statistics South Africa has embarked on a project to digitize/convert 286 million records dating back two centuries to electronic format

It is hoped that the digitization process will help in providing quick access and reliable information, preserve and build family trees and thereby help restore dignity to those previously marginalised and thereby deliver a public/common good for the benefit of the country and in particular, those who were left behind. 5

The Problem is rooted in colonialism

Department of the Interior

Essentially for colonial control: unlike Home Affairs in UK which is built on the police and intelligence. It was for the administration of:

• Civil registration plus immigration

• Media, science, asylums, official printing, elections and statistics.

British colonial control 1910- 1961 (White)

Department of Home Affairs

Coloured Indian

Bantu AdminTB

V

C

Essentially for social control: Apartheid was a defence of white rule and exploitation using an extreme form of a colonial system. The 11 departments delivering HA functions maintained:

• Racial and ethnic divisions & ideology

• Civil registration plus immigration for whites / Migrant labour for “Natives”.

Apartheid regime1948 – 1994

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

• Enabler of Safety and security (right to life & sovereignty)

• Enabler of nation building

• Enabler of development

• Enabler of service delivery

• Enables integration and modernisation of government

• Integrated Identity Systems (DHA and Government)

• User-centric Systems

• Strengthens institutions and accountability

IDENTIY MANAGEMENT

• Determine citizenship

• Right to an identity and status

• Right to privacy and dignity

• Enables access to rights/ services

• Linked to development

• Nation building

• Secure and protected

• User-centric Systems

• Counters Fraud and other crimes (e.g. Cyber crime)

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION MANAGT.

• Sovereignty gives the right to

• Internationalism

• Human rights

• Responsive to Africa ‘s development agenda

• Nation building

• Enables access of SA to the world

• User-centric Systems

• Counters Terrorism and International crimes

GOALTo expand public access to our important historical holdings

through digitization, create value to the Nation, and reconstruct and build our future through our people.

To scan and index the following DHA forms (and supporting documents) , namely births, amendments and rectification marriages, deaths, identity documents, citizenship, passports, permanent residence, temporary residence, asylum, refugees and visas forms, human resources and finances together with

their supporting documents. The project will be executed in phases:

First phase of the project will involve processing of all forms for births, birth amendments, marriages and deaths together with their supporting documents. 8

OBJECTIVES

Provide records to Stats SA for digitization

Prepare all forms for scanning.

Index all images of the forms.

Archive and store images.

Scan and produce images of all forms as supplied by DHA.

Index all images by ID number for easy retrieval

Handover all forms and images to DHA9

BENEFITS Immediate access to digitized documents irrespective of office location

Electronic records can be viewed by more than one person simultaneously

Information can be shared across organizations

electronic records are not subject to risk of loss or physical damage

Increased security and creation of credible NPR

Make our digitized material and metadata available in our online catalog.

Maximize the efficient and effective use of resources to carry out digitization and achieve cost-saving benefits whenever possible.

Improved service to customers by responding to their evolving expectations 10

STATUTORY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Digitization of records helps trace Genealogy and Lineage, and is mandated by amongst others:

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996): Right to dignity (Sec 10); Right to Citizenship (Sec 20); Right to a name and Nationality from Birth (Sec 28); Section 195 of Constitution: provision of timely, accessible and accurate information

Citizenship Act (1995): Acquisition of Citizenship by Birth, Decent, Naturalization

National Archives and Record Service Act ( Act 43 of 1996) Ensure proper management and care of the records; preservation and use of a national archival heritage; preserve public records with enduring value for use by the public and the State

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STATUTORY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

The Promotion of Access to Information Act (Act. No. 2 of 2000): promote transparency, accountability and effective governance; record should be managed in such a manner that it is available, accessible, and rich in contextual information

The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (Act. No. 3 of 2000): to ensure that administrative action is lawful, reasonable and fair and properly documented.

Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (Act. No. 25 of 2002): to legalize electronic communications and transactions, and to build trust in electronic records.

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CURRENT STATUS QUO OF RECORDS

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CURRENT STATUS QUO OF RECORDS

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RECORDS PRIORITISED FOR DIGITIZATION

Document Area Document Type Total Manual VolumesPages per File Total Files

Birth

Birth Applications: 0-14 year(s) 6 31,000,000

Birth Applications: 15+ years 15 10,096,950

IDID Applications Varied 38,229,631

Photo Varied 17,538,918Fingerprint Varied 25,375,000

Marriage Marriage Applications 10 37,000,000Divorce Decree 1 18,000,000

Death Death Applications 6 58,500,000

Citizenship

Citizenship Case File:- Application Form

- Police Report / Affidavit- Permanent Residence

- Verification- Foreign Birth Registration

- Foreign Marriage Registration- Foreign Death Registration

- Other

20-300 2,257,114

Amendments: MinorsAmendment Case File:- Application form- Supporting documents

13 1,447,261

Amendments: AdultsAmendment Case File:

- Application- Marriage Applications- Supporting documents

Varied 10,000,000

Other Human Resources and Finance30, 000, 000

TOTAL 286,444,874

REALISING A VISION OF A SECURE, DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND IDENTITY

The Minister of Home Affairs had a discussion with the Statistician General on the preservation and ensuring of quick access to departmental civil registration records.

Our archival holdings number more than 286 million records and trillion pages of unique documents dating back from 1865

These records protect Citizens’ rights, ensure government accountability and document the national experience and genealogy of persons in RSA

The 1st meeting held on the 23 July 2013 between Stats SA and DHA to confirm project requirements

DHA envisaged to convert all their forms and supporting documents to electronic format, thereby cultivating public good, and strengthen our nation’s democracy through public access to high-value government records.

The department has embarked on Modernisation (Live Capture/Paperless CR system)

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APPROACH

Partnership with Stats SA – Stats SA has invested in its own resources to conduct digitization with state of the art technological material which is able to process access to fragile and/or high demand records, obsolete formats and deteriorated records.

Provisioning of adequate human resource capacity, which is able to support this digitization business process.

Along with staffing, Stats SA has provided IT Infrastructure necessary to support digitization that includes bandwidth, storage, and the ability to share images and metadata and other requirements.

Policy and legislative guidelines

Available Technical Digitization Standards that ensures uniformity and standardization.

Funding Strategies to support digitization 17

METHODOLOGY & PROCESS FLOW

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Receiving Linking Preparation 1 Preparation 2 Preparation 3

Store

ScanningPost

ScanningRe-

packagingVerification STASSA

DHA Verification

Reverse Logistics to DHA

DHA Scanning and Indexing Process flow

LET’S VISUALISE…

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3

Packaging into new indexing box

4

Dispatch to Stats SA DPC

1

Removal of batches from storage shelves

2

Verification against checklist

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50

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LET’S VISUALISE…

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3

Packaging into new indexing box

4

Dispatch to Stats SA DPC

1

Removal of batches from storage shelves

2

Verification against checklist

5050

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Off loading and Verification

5

Store

Indexing and Packaging in Store

6

Labeling and Preparation

7

Scanning

8

Indexing – ID Number Verification

9

Archiving

10Handover to DHA

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SAMPLE SCANS

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EXPECTED OUTCOMES Integrated electronic records management system.

Single view of the person and relatives (family tree).

Undisputable identification of a person / high level data security.

Security and Non-repudiation service / robust security information protected from internal/external threats.

Track and trace/Identification history.

Interface with other systems of interest in government and private sector

High capacity electronic repository/storage multi-channel delivery and retrieval with low response time by Metadata

Solution with capacity to associate eRecords 22

RISKS & OTHER CERITICAL BARRIERS

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Description Impact Mitigation

Converted records may be large in file size causing a slow response time to view record from desktop

High Regular upgrade of software/hardware and purchase of additional memory

Loss of documents in transit and during digitization process

Low Highly Secured Transportation system and digitization environment

Hardware failure and other forms of disaster

High Significant backup and storage

Insufficient budget Medium Allocation of sufficient funds as to deliver the project.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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