Zimbabwe: Update on citizenship, renunciation and passport issues (Nov 2002)
Published: 28/Nov/2002
Source: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
We welcome, with great relief, General Notice 584 of 2002, as gazetted by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on 22 November 2002. This seeks to clarify and declare the law relating to renunciation and proof of foreign citizenship and has directed the Registrar General (R-G) and his officials to apply the law as set out in the Notice. The following now applies:
1. A citizen of Zimbabwe by birth may not be deprived of or denied his citizenship unless he is or has become a citizen of a foreign country.
2. A Zimbabwean citizen actually holding a foreign citizenship will have lost his Zimbabwean citizenship if he did not renounce his foreign citizenship with both the foreign authorities and at the R-G’s office before 6 January 2002. (We maintain that the deadline remains in dispute until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal of Justice Adam’s judgment in Tsvangirai –v- Registrar General & Ors HH 29-02)
3. A Zimbabwean citizen who acquires foreign citizenship by marriage, or by some other voluntary act, will lose his Zimbabwean citizenship if he does not renounce foreign citizenship within one year of acquiring such foreign citizenship.
4. A minor Zimbabwean citizen who is also a citizen of a foreign country will lose his Zimbabwean citizenship if he does not renounce foreign citizenship within one year of attaining the age of majority (18 years).
5. A foreign citizen who acquires Zimbabwean citizenship by registration shall lose his Zimbabwean citizenship if he does not renounce the foreign citizenship within 6 (six) months of obtaining local citizenship.
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