Zimbabwe: Regularise citizenship status: RG’s Office
Published: 18/Jan/2005
Source: The Herald (Harare)
THE Registrar-General’s Office has invited people made “stateless” by the Citizenship Amendment Act number 12 of 2003 to come forward and regularise their citizenship status.
Failure by the affected people to regularise their citizenship would result in them failing to vote in the on-coming elections.
Affected people include those born in the country or any other country in the Sadc region whose parents were Zimbabwean.
“Persons falling within this category are those born in Zimbabwe and one of their parents was born in a Sadc country and entered the country on or before 18th April 1980,” said the Registrar General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, in a state- ment.
He said those whose parents entered the country as migrant workers and remained in the country until the affected person’s birth were citizens by birth. Some of these people had lost their citizenship after failing to certify the origins of their parents.
People born in Zimbabwe and continuously remained resident in the country since birth except for any temporary absence from this country and had not at any time after their birth acquired any foreign citizenship or foreign passport, whether voluntary or otherwise, or enjoyed the protection of any foreign country were legible for Zimbabwean citizenship, Mr Mudede said.
He said also eligible were those born in a Sadc country with one of his or her parents having been born in Zimbabwe but left the country on or before April 18, 1980 for a Sadc country as a migrant worker. Mr Mudede said those who qualify for regularisation should be individuals who have not at anytime after the date of their first entry into Zimbabwe acquired any foreign citizenship or other foreign passport, whether voluntarily or otherwise, or enjoyed the protection of any foreign country.
“Those who fail to regularise their citizenship by January 30, 2005 may find that they do not qualify to vote in the March Parliamentary Elections,” Mr Mudede said. He said those intending to regularise their status should visit the nearest Registrar-General offices with their birth certificates, national identity card and passport if they have any.
Meanwhile, the Registrar-General has published names of individuals who have either supplied incomplete or incorrect residential addresses when they registered as voters in their constituencies to report with their national identity cards to the nearest registry office. In a notice yesterday, the Registrar-General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, said the voters risked being struck off the voters’ roll if they did not approach their respective district registry offices within a period of two weeks.
“Please be advised that failure to report as requested and directed within 14 days from this date (of notice) will result in the constituency registrars removing the voter’s name from the roll in accordance with section 25 of the Electoral Act chapter 2;01,” he said. The Registrar-General’s department is in the process of updating the voters’ roll in preparation of the forthcoming General Elections scheduled for March this year.
http://www.zimbabweherald.com/index.php?id=39813&pubdate=2005-01-18