Tracing Citizenship and Genealogy through Digitization: South Africa s post apartheid conduit for archival practice and Natural justice VUSUMUZI MKHIZE 16 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 2
VISION & MISSION VISION To 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. MISSION To 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 3
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 4
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 British colonial control 1910-1961 Department of the Interior B (White) Department of Home Affairs Coloured Apartheid regime 1948 1994 T Bantu Admin Indian V C 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. 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.
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) 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 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
GOAL To 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 8 their supporting documents.
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 DHA 9
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 11
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. 12
CURRENT STATUS QUO OF RECORDS 13
CURRENT STATUS QUO OF RECORDS 14
RECORDS PRIORITISED FOR DIGITIZATION Document Area Document Type Total Manual Volumes Pages per File Total Files Birth Birth Applications: 0-14 year(s) 6 31,000,000 Birth Applications: 15+ years 15 10,096,950 ID Applications Varied 38,229,631 ID Photo Varied 17,538,918 Fingerprint Varied 25,375,000 Marriage Marriage Applications 10 37,000,000 Divorce Decree 1 18,000,000 Death Death Applications 6 58,500,000 Citizenship Citizenship Case File: - Application Form - Police Report / Affidavit - Permanent Residence - Verification 20-300 2,257,114 - Foreign Birth Registration - Foreign Marriage Registration - Foreign Death Registration - Other Amendments: Minors Amendment Case File: - Application form 13 1,447,261 Amendments: Adults - Supporting documents Amendment Case File: - Application - Marriage Applications - Supporting documents Varied 10,000,000 15 30, 000, 000
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 1 st 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) 16
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 DHA Scanning and Indexing Process flow Receiving Linking Preparation 1 Preparation 2 Preparation 3 Store DHA Verification Verification STASSA Repackaging Post Scanning Scanning Reverse Logistics to DHA 18
LET S VISUALISE 1 2 3 4 Removal of batches from storage shelves Verification against checklist Packaging into new indexing box Dispatch to Stats SA DPC 19
LET S VISUALISE 1 2 3 4 Removal of batches from storage shelves Verificatio n against checklist Packaging into new indexing box Dispatch to Stats SA DPC 5 Off loading and Verification 8 7 6 Indexing and Packaging in Store Scanning 9 10 Labeling and Preparation 11 Handover to DHA Store Indexing ID Number Verification Archiving 20
SAMPLE SCANS 21
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 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. 23
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 24