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The Herald, January 6, 1989
PEOPLE queue from 5am outside the central registry at Makombe Building hoping to be among the lucky 200, the maximum that can be issued with birth certificates each day.
In the long queues are people clutching brief birth certificates wanting the full certificate; others have lost their originals and some are just registering births.
While acquiring a full certificate or replacing a lost one is routine, the problem is that all registry records are in the central registry offices.
As a result, some people say they have to travel from places as far as Mutare to replace a lost birth certificate.
The desire for the long birth certificate arises from demands by schools, employers and the Income Tax Department. The registry offices find it difficult to cope.
By 7am yesterday, at least 300 people had already queued. Shortly after the offices had opened yesterday, registry officials started giving out numbers.
Trouble almost started when one of the officials told some of the people those he had given numbers to, were the maximum they could serve on the day.
So disgruntled were the people who had been left out that they demanded to see the Registrar-General, Cde Tobaiwa Mudede, so that he could explain to them why only 200 people could be served.
Cde Mudede told the group of more than 50 that this had to be so because the registering officers could only cope with that figure.
He said registering officers had to screen people, carefully checking the details because some foreigners tried to cheat to get birth certificates. Then the officers had to type out the certificates. The process took time.
“Some of you here are good, but there are some people who are selling birth certificates to foreigners and thus giving them Zimbabwean citizenship,” he said.
He said birth certificates sold to foreigners could be used to get a national registration identity card, passport and employment.
Cde Mudede told the people that through the screening process done by officials, they were arresting about three people a day who would be trying to cheat to get a birth certificate.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
- The importance of identification documents cannot be underestimated. People need birth certificates and later national IDs, driver’s licences and/or passports when contacting various transactions.
- They are documents issued to citizens by every country and can be required any time for identification purposes.
- The only solution to the birth records, passports and other forms of identification is to ensure that the registry department is fully digitised so that applicants can apply for their documents from anywhere in the country or globally, as long as they are Zimbabwean citizens. This in short is decentralisation.
- When fully computerised, this will cut down on the overall high cost of the documents.
- Digitising the process will also cut down on red tape and the rampant corruption the registry office is accused of.
- The e-passport that was commissioned by President Mnangagwa late last year is a step in the right direction, especially in the age of the Covid pandemic. It is also in sync with National Development Strategy 1.
- However, the majority of the people cannot afford the price. There must be a rethink on the pricing regime — starting with the application fee and the electronic document itself.
Online Reporter