Take advantage of ongoing exercise to get national documents

WITH the ongoing mobile registration exercise wrapping up at the end of this month, members of the public, who have not used this opportunity to access national documents should quickly visit centres closest to their respective locations.

The Civil Registry Department is on a national crusade to provide citizens with national documents in a blitz that started in April and ends on September 30.

Government was responding to delays caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 that delayed the issuing of the critical documents thereby creating a backlog.

President Mnangagwa earlier in the year instructed the registry department to relax conditions which were restricting some citizens from obtaining birth certificates, IDs and even death certificates for their loved ones.

Registrar-General Mr Henry Machiri told this paper that the exercise has seen more than a million people access national documents following the relaxation of terms.

“We are happy so far with what we have done. We have registered more than a million people countrywide for birth certificates, IDs and we feel the month of September which is the last month of the exercise more people can still be registered. I’m persuading, encouraging our citizens to come forward and be registered,” said Mr Machiri.

He said members of the public were previously struggling to obtain the documents due to the strict requirements of the law.
Mr Machiri said President Mnangagwa’s directive to relax the requirements for the obtaining of the documents has benefited hundreds of people particularly in Matabeleland region where children with parents based abroad were struggling to get birth certificates.

“If we talk about Matabeleland region, we have children who are brought by omalayitsha (from South Africa) whose parents will be based outside the country and left in the custody of their grandparents. According to the Birth and Death Act, it is the parents who are supposed to register that child,” said Mr Machiri.

“But what we have done during this exercise which we started on April 1 and will end September 30, we have relaxed to say, fine the parents are outside the country and the child is here with grandparents and as long as the grandfather or grandmother knows the particulars that are supposed to be on the form, we are accepting.”

Mr Machiri said they were fulfilling President Mnangagwa’s national pledge that no one should be left without national documents that enables them to enjoy rights as citizens.

“In fact, situations differ from case to case and according to leaders of each mobile team, they will look at the case and make sure that the person is assisted. Remember what the President said, he said no one must be left behind and should make sure that we assist as many people as possible and this is our thrust. People who come forward to register must be registered,” said Machiri.

Mr Machiri said the department has deployed more teams to communities that were considered marginalised.

“We have areas such as Binga where we made sure that we go village by village. We created more teams for those areas which we knew that we could not assist before. We have the San community in Tsholotsho and Bulilima, those relaxations were done, we have gone to them and we have done those registrations. Even in Mashonaland we have the Doma people, they have their cultures and beliefs and our relaxation has assisted those people to be registered,” said Mr Machiri.

“We are saying it’s only a month to go, please let’s utilise this window. Let those who have not been registered come forward and get national documents. It could be birth certificates, death certificate of late relatives and even the ID itself come forward and be registered.

“We are also reviewing the exercise to say if there are any areas which we think we need to mop up we will be going to those areas in consultation with the community leaders if they say there is an area which they believe was not covered adequately.”

Members of the public are therefore encouraged to take full advantage of the ongoing exercise to get national documents.

Article Source: The Chronicle