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Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
THE Bulawayo Registry Office is having challenges documenting people staying at squatter camps around the city as they don’t apply for crucial documentation for their children on time.
This was said by Bulawayo Provincial Registrar Mrs Jane Peters while giving a report during the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission-ZHRC public hearings on the national inquiry on access to documentation in Zimbabwe on Monday.
The ZHRC is holding a week long inquiry into challenges citizens face in accessing birth, identity cards, passport and citizenship in Bulawayo.
“The problem areas that we have are those on the periphery of Bulawayo. We found that most of them do not visit health centres and they do not come to our office for documentation. They wait for us to go to their areas to register the children”, said Mrs Peters.
She said Ngozi Mine, Killarney Squatter Camp and Hyde Park Estate have a lot of children without documents.
“In the past we have visited Killarney Squatter Camp and met the leader of Ngozi Mine. We spoke with them and heard their concerns. We asked them to provide a register of people who needed assistance and after our investigations we register them.
“Our challenge is actually with parents who do not register or do not register within the stipulated time of registration.
“According to the law, registration is supposed to be done within the first 42 days of birth of the child.
“Most parents do not observe that and it ends up creating most of these problems that we come across,” Mrs Peters said.
She said movement of people from one place to another and death of parents was also contributing to the challenges for some people as they can fail to get witnesses to support them to acquire documents resulting in them failing to register.
“These days people are dying at a young age. Some parents die before they get documents for their children, that also creates a problem. Our citizens should observe the law and register their children as soon as they are born to help them get documents.
“We also have made efforts to establish registration centres in hospitals and clinics so that mothers who give birth do not have to go far to apply for the documentation.
“All you have to do is to get a birth record and go to the next office to apply for a birth certificate within the health centre,” Mrs Peters said.
She said abandoned children have challenges getting documents and many of them grow up without the crucial documents.
“The most vulnerable are abandoned children as the social services are no longer capacitated to cater for most of these children. Some are now being taken care of by churches or people who take pity on them. They then grow up without documents.
“With those children we try and work with the Social Welfare Department to bring them to registration centres and make reports so that we try and help them,” said Mrs Peters.
She said her office is working with churches which do not believe in getting medical attention by asking them to make registers which they use to register their children. —@themkhust_ncube
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