Zimbabwe: Passports: Decentralizing a citizen right
Published: 21/Août/2022
Source: Sunday Mail (Harare)
By Emerson Mnangagwa
Decentralize governance, decentralize services
Chapter 14 of our Constitution provides for the decentralization of governmental power in the interest of citizen participation and social justice. The Chapter puts an end to the Bambazonke philosophy according to which everything was centralized in favor of the metropolitan provinces, cities and villages to the detriment of the historically marginalized rural provinces, districts, neighborhoods and villages. Now, the Constitution requires development and decisions to be participatory, spatially uniform and balanced, ensuring that no person, place or community is left behind. The Second Republic declared and announced its commitment to this ethical and constitutional restriction in Gwanda, Matabeleland South, just before our 2018 harmonized elections. Since then, the Second Republic has made deconcentration its watchword in the management of affairs nation’s public. The results are there for everyone.
Constitution on identity and travel documents
Chapter 3 of the same Constitution declares that passports, birth certificates and other travel and identity documents are rights and benefits to be enjoyed by all citizens. Although this had always been the persuasion of independence, little ground was covered towards this goal under the First Republic. This in part prompted our Constitution framers to enshrine these rights and benefits in the supreme law of the land. The Second Republic has now made it an imperative duty to ensure that the gap is definitively bridged, so that all our fellow citizens are fully and fairly served.
Read further : https://www.sundaymail.co.zw/passports-decentralising-a-citizen-right