[Comment]<\/p>\n
BEFORE every general election in Zimbabwe, the issue of citizenship in relation to voter registration, voting and associated disenfranchisement surfaces all the time. <\/span><\/p>\n Zimbabwean citizens, mainly those with roots in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, have to be subjected to official harassment and humiliation on whether they can register to vote or not.<\/p>\n For years they have been technically barred from voting \u2014 disenfranchised in other words \u2014 ostensibly because they must first of all renounce entitlement to foreign citizenship by virtue of their parents, grandparents or ancestors having originated from the region.<\/p>\n This is scandalous. It is common cause that millions of Zimbabweans \u2014 probably up to a third of the population or five million \u2014 came from the region in search of greener pastures. That history is well-documented.<\/p>\n