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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has said there is need to amend the country’s laws to ensure that people do not have difficulties in acquiring national documents.
Speaking recently at a media briefing to mark the end of the national inquiry on access to national documentation in Matabeleland South, ZHRC chairperson, Dr Elasto Mugwadi said public hearings conducted in Matabeleland South Province have shown that people are failing to access national documents mainly due to failure to meet requirements set by the Registrar General’s Office which in some instances are unclear and unreasonable.
He said 339 witnesses made submissions during the recent hearings in Matabeleland South and 40,9 percent of them said they had failed to access national documents.
Dr Mugwadi said there was need to amend the country’s laws as they were rigid and do not cater for peculiar cases that do not fit into the legal framework that was in place.
“The public hearings that we conducted in Matabeleland South Province have shown that 40,9 percent of the people have failed to access national documents because of registration issues. These comprise lack of clear requirements for the registration process, lack of information on how to obtain national identity documents, wrongly recorded information and wrong spellings by RG’s office staff which clients later find difficult to correct, negative attitudes from the RG’s office staff,” he said.
“The challenges also include notable delays in processing documents, questionable turning away of applicants who meet all requirements and withholding of birth records by hospitals among other issues. The hearings have also shown that 37,3 percent of the people failed to get their documents because of socio-cultural norms, 16,3 percent as a result of economic issues, five percent as a result of long distances travelled to reach the Registry offices and 0,5 percent as a result of legal issues.”
Dr Mugwadi said other peculiar cases that were encountered by the commission had shown that in border communities parents were leaving their children with their grandparents going to other countries without first obtaining birth certificates for them.
He said some locals were struggling to obtain documents for their children who were born in neighbouring countries.
Dr Mugwadi said another challenge faced by people in Matabeleland South was lack of documentation as a result of the Gukurahundi disturbances.
“Lack of documentation has caused generational challenges in acquiring national documents, failure to continue with education, exclusion of affected pupils from participating in extra-curricular activities in schools such as sports, lack of access to social services such as food aid, employment, failure to access health services among other issues that are an infringement on human rights,” he said.
Dr Mugwadi said the documents which the public did not have were mainly birth certificates.
He said the commission will produce a detailed report with its findings and recommendations on what has to be done to improve access to national documents. He said the commission was going to make follow ups on witnesses they had engaged to ensure that they were able to access the required documents.—@DubeMatutu
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