Home Affairs to kick off its recruitment of 10,000 unemployed youths this month

The department of home affairs will this month start recruiting 10,000 youths to digitise its paper system.

The mass recruitment was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his state of the nation address last month.

Responding to parliamentary questions after the Sona, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi said more than R222bn had been requested from the Treasury for the project. The amount was expected to cover equipment and salaries.

Motsoaledi said the hiring process would be fair and transparent, with women and people living with disabilities being prioritised.

He clarified that the project was not an internship programme but would be open to all unemployed youths.

Youth living in rural areas, without internet connection, would not be left out.

“The acquisition process will adopt a blended approach wherein applications are received through walk-in centres, Thusong centres, labour centres and on digital platforms. Advertisements will be placed on social media platforms, radio, notices at the Thusong centres, labour centres. Geographic spread representativeness with due consideration to rural areas with little or no smart devices and or connectivity will be ensured,” Motsoaledi said in the written response.

His department intended on using a model similar to that used by the Department of Education when it employed thousands of assistant teachers.

Motsoaledi said after applications were received, shortlisted candidates would undergo suitability checks where their credit, citizenship and criminal records would be probed.

Contracts would be issued in the first week of May.

“Induction and training will be conducted before actual work is commenced. All 10,000 youth will be appointed at the same time to undertake the initial preparatory work of sorting, sub-sorting, and preparing records for scanning,” said Motsoaledi.

“The split of the youth will be equitably distributed among provinces based on the number of records in the provinces.”

Motsoaledi said there would be continuous training and development programmes offered to the 10,000 youth during their employment period.

This would include training in entrepreneurial skills, coding, robotics, digital transformation, financial management, basic project management skills and credit bearing. CV writing and interviewing skills would also be shared.

“The department has submitted a bid for funds based on two scenarios which includes compensation as well as goods and services as follows:

— 24 months: R 2,222,467,100

— 36 months: R 3,249,303,100

“The department is awaiting a letter from National Treasury to confirm the allocation for the project,” Motsoaledi added. 

TimesLIVE