South Africa revolutionises record keeping as millions of records are digitised
Ever wanted a peek at Ingrid Jonker’s death certificate, or perhaps Gerard Sekoto’s birth certificate? The Department of Home Affairs has a treasure trove of South African history tucked away in its storage facilities, and an ambitious project to digitise these records will make it easier to access them. The department has 286-million records and 90% of them are on paper. They are mostly birth, marriage and death certificates, or ID, naturalisation and permitting applications, dating back to the late 1800s. The department’s archives house the official footprints left behind by renowned South Africans — the permits they applied for, samples of their handwriting and a host of interesting facts and details. The department has undertaken the enormous task of digitising these records. It will start with birth records, as these are the biggest chunk — at about 110-million of the 286-million — and because birth records are the primary documents that prove citizenship and ancestry. The aim ...
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