Zimbabwe: Christina Janet Veitch v Registrar General of Citizenship & Ors
Published: 12/Jun/2019
Source: High Court of Zimbabwe, Harare
Case number: HH – 422 – 2019
MATHONSI J: This is an application for a declaration of citizenship by a 66 year old woman who was born in this country when it was still Southern Rhodesia on 1 May 1953 by parents of Scottish descent. The first respondent has refused to confirm her citizenship status and when she attended at the first respondent’s offices in Kadoma on 19 April 2017 requesting to be issued with a plastic national identity card the officials at that office not only denied her one, they promptly confiscated her green national identity card waiting pass which had previously been issued to her. Subsequent efforts by her legal practitioners to persuade the first respondent to confirm her citizenship status and to issue her with a national identity card have come to naught, the first respondent insisting that she must prove her status and entitlement.
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That the applicant was a citizen of Zimbabwe immediately before 22 May 2013 when the Constitution came into effect cannot possibly be in doubt. I did not hear Ms Nyamukapa to dispute that the law which was in place when the applicant was born on 1 May 1953 conferred citizenship upon her by birth. Apart from that the first respondent himself confirmed her citizenship when he issued her with a national identity document as a citizen. Indeed citizenship was also extended to the applicant’s brother under the same circumstances. By virtue of the provisions of s 43 (1) the applicant is entitled to continue to be a Zimbabwean citizen.
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Download judgment: Veitch v Registrar General Citizenship HH-422-19