BY NOMAQHAWE NDLOVU<\/p>\n
Brian Ngwenya* was born to Zimbabwean parents in South Africa 15 years ago, but he was forced to relocate to Zimbabwe after his father died and his mother developed a mental illness.<\/p>\n
Ngwenya said he had to come back home because his mother\u2019s condition made difficult for her to take care of him.<\/p>\n
He was to live under the care of his maternal grandmother in rural Kezi, Matabeleland South.<\/p>\n
Ngwenya\u2019s grandmother had to beg the headmaster at a local school to allow him to attend classes even though he did not have a birth certificate, one of the required documents when one enrols for formal education in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandson will soon be taking his Grade 7 examinations and I am worried he will face challenges as he has no birth certificate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I go to the Registrar [General\u2019s] offices I am told I have to bring his parents` documents and they also want $50, which is too much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimbabwean laws, particularly the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Chapter 5:02), require that all children be registered, but this is often easier said than done.<\/p>\n
There are hundreds of thousands of children in Ngwenya\u2019s predicament, with an Access to Documentation (ATD) Baseline Survey conducted by a consortium of civil society organisations in Bulawayo in 2017, revealing that an estimated 445 852 children in the three Matabeleland provinces did not have a birth certificate.<\/p>\n
Civil society organisations from the region have petitioned the government to ensure that these unregistered children receive civil documentation.<\/p>\n
Factors like distance from the Registrar General\u2019s office, the attitude of the staff once there and the process for applying for documentation are some of the reasons listed as being a hindrance to access to birth certificates.<\/p>\n
But the biggest obstacle by far is the list of documents that is needed by the Registrar General\u2019s office for them to start processing birth certificates.<\/p>\n
The Matabeleland region suffers the double whammy of being the epicentre of the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities, which saw an estimated 20 000 people being killed.<\/p>\n
The unaccounted for deaths of adults meant that their children could not get birth certificates.<\/p>\n
In some cases, women were raped and from that abuse, they gave birth to children who could not get birth certificates because of the absence of their fathers.<\/p>\n
In response to a public outcry and lobbying from civil society, the government has reduced the requirements needed for one to acquire a birth certificate, particularly for children born outside the country.<\/p>\n
They reduced the fees from $50 to $2 for children above six years old, while those below can now acquire the document for free.<\/p>\n