dyton mupawaenda
Farirai Machivenyika–Senior Reporter
Traditional leaders will confirm births and deaths as part of Government’s effort to decentralise the issuing of identity documents, Registrar-General Mr Henry Machiri told the Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services on Monday during the 2024 national Budget consultations.
The Registrar-General’s Department falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage.
Mothers who give birth at home and relatives of those who die at home, especially in rural areas, face challenges in accessing birth and death records.
At present, people who give birth at home are required to bring at least two witnesses to the Registrar-General’s offices to obtain birth certificates, which Mr Machiri said was discouraging some people to register births.
“So, we are going to be training 6 400 traditional leaders starting in the next two weeks and we hope by the end of the first quarter next year we would have completed training the traditional leaders throughout the country,” Mr Machiri said.
The traditional leaders would then be able to certify that a birth took place, in the same way that a clinic can now do.
Mr Machiri said the training exercise will be done in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Chiefs Council.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage was given a budget target of $2,163 trillion, which will see the majority of the funds, $1,619 trillion go towards employment costs, with $423,791 billion meant for recurrent expenditure, while $120,475 billion will be for capital expenditure.
Online Reporter