Zimbabwe: Call to relax birth registration process
Published: 25/Feb/2017
Source: The Herald (Harare)
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
There has been a call for the relaxation of requirements for acquiring identity registration such as birth certificates to enable people without parents and aliens, but who have been resident in Zimbabwe for years, easy access to national documents. Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and Defence said there was need to use the retention fund by the Registrar General’s Office to computerise offices to avoid inconveniences to the public, some of whom would have travelled long distances.
While presenting the committee’s report on service delivery by the RG’s office following a countrywide tour it conducted last year, Chirumhanzu-Zibagwe legislator Cde Auxillia Mnangagwa (Zanu-PF) said there were many people affected.
“Your committee was informed that among challenges encountered were situations where clients failed to bring their biological parents when they wanted to register for their primary documents,” she said.
“In such cases, clients were asked to go back to their original homes and bring village heads as was the case of an 18-year-old from Manicaland province who was requested to do so by the officials.”
Cde Mnangagwa said some clients were struggling to meet the required criteria, which in most cases were found to be stringent.
“Such cases were prevalent among aliens who were claiming that they had no relatives to testify for them,” said
Cde Mnangagwa.
Read further: http://www.herald.co.zw/call-to-relax-birth-registration-process/