Home Affairs on hiring spree – 10,000 unemployed graduates to be employed!

As Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi is fighting toe and nail to restructure the trouble-ridden department, he announced that home affairs will be opening doors for 10 000 unemployed graduates to meet what it calls, “growing demand” for digital services.

Motsoaledi strongly affirmed that young people who graduated from Information Technology, Document & Information and Records Management, obtained from tertiary institutions will be placed under an internship period that will run concurrently from November 2022 until October 2025.

While briefing the media on Thursday, Motsoaledi said the department is looking for youngsters to join the sinking ship, as the embattled institution is inundated.

The minister said this is high time for people with “high-level digital skills and aptitude”.

It’s no secret that the department has been battling to offer quality service since 1994, citizens endure hard times to get service at home affairs facilities.

For some they even sleep at the facilities, with long queues that start from dawn, and even then they might not be served.

Citizens are always subjected to service backlog such as computer systems crashing or the systems going offline.

The department will now look to recruit 10,000 youth for digitisation of records, passport security and transit visas.

As part of addressing gender inequality, Motsoaledi said his department will be looking for ways to place 60% of women in the internship period.

“The department has more than 350 million Civic paper records relating to birth, marriages, deaths and amendments. The category of records dates back to 1895 which necessitates care and reliable systems that will bear tolerance for the digitisation purposes.

“These records are in all provinces and the bulk of which are in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape,” says Motsoaledi.

Motsoaledi said the first intake of the recruitment process will kickstart with 2 000 youth.

The department has opened application for the first first phase from today, and successful candidates will assume their duties on November 1.

He further added that second phase of recruitment for 4 000 more graduates will be opened in October, and their internship period will run from next year in January.

“The final 4,000 graduates will be recruited in December 2022 and January 2023. This cohort will assume duty in April 2023,” says Motsoaledi.

Youth are urged to apply online through the  websites of department of home affairs and department of employment and labour.

For applicants who do not have access to the internet can visit nearest departments.