Nations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be able to tap into the Gauteng Department of Health’s digital fingerprint system.

This, after the Gauteng Provincial Government, through the province’s health department, on Friday agreed to link the system to the population registers of six SADC countries.

The move aims to address the challenge of identifying people from the SADC region who die in the province without any form of identification, according to the Gauteng health department.

The provincial government, led by premier Panyaza Lesufi and health and wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, met with ambassadors and representatives from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, Namibia, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“What we are doing here is part of consulting stakeholders, and we believe this is the beginning of better relations and cooperation among our respective countries, so that we can assist others in servicing our nationals,” says Lesufi.