Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba last week announced a significant system upgrade aimed at facilitating the automation of the births, marriages and deaths (BMD) certification system.

The BMD automation process forms part of the Department of Home Affairs’ (DHA’s) flagship R2.2-billion modernisation project, which got under way in 2010.

Gigaba explained during a media briefing that the upgrade of the system would comprise two phases. The first phase entailed automating the birth registrations process for children up to a year old, as well as the marriage and death certificate reprint process for marriages and deaths already registered in the national population register. Once completed, the system would allow for the printing of a parent and/or guardian’s details in children’s passports.

“In this way, the department will have delivered on the earlier Cabinet concession of easing travel with children by eliminating the need for unabridged birth certificates,” said Gigaba.

He cautioned that some countries might still require unabridged birth certificates, and that only the parent and/or guardian who registered the child in question would have his or her details printed in the child’s passport. The other parent or guardian could apply to have his or her details included. Additionally, written parental consent was still required for children travelling abroad without either parent.

The second phase of the system upgrade would comprise the automation of birth registrations for children aged a year or older, as well as the automation of new marriage and death registrations. This phase would start in the new financial year.

Gigaba stated that the new system would eliminate opportunities for corruption and fraud within the department, as well as fraud involving people outside the department, by limiting opportunities for human intervention.

DHA director-general Mkuseli Apleni stressed that the department’s systems had never been hacked. Apleni further assured the public that the digitalised system would not exclude citizens who lack Internet access or computer literacy.

“Those with the ability to apply online can do so, but other channels, such as live capture and the manual paper process, will continue.”

He also noted that the department was planning to finalise the automation process within a year, but that the roll-out might take more time.

Addressing concerns regarding the impact of automation on jobs, Gigaba said: “There are 184 smart identity document card offices for 57-million people; it means that, in terms of physical infrastructure and physical personnel, we are grossly underresourced.”

He noted that Home Affairs as a whole was understaffed by about 8 000 people and that the automation and digitalisation of certain aspects of its processes resolved issues resulting from a lack of capacity.

He added that it was “inevitable” that the department would look at the “suitability of skills” currently available within the organisation, as “a highly digitalised DHA will require a different set of skills”

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The department would seek to retrain much of its staff and ensure that new recruits had the skills that would be needed in future.