Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Registrar-General has withdrawn a special two-day window where students who are sitting for public examinations at the end of the year were expected to process National Identity cards, citing Covid-19 threats after thousands of people turned up for the exercise across the country yesterday.
Thousands of pupils and members of the public thronged the Civil Registry Department offices to get their IDs following an announcement by the Civil Registry Department last Wednesday.
“Following the recent receipt of consumables required for the securitisation of IDs, which have since been dispatched to all provinces and districts, the Civil Registry Department wishes to advise its valued clients and members of the public, that it will be issuing IDs to candidates intending to sit for the General Certificate in Education (GCE) Ordinary and Advanced Level in the November 2021 Examinations,” read a statement from the Civil Registry Department.
The registry offices ordinarily do not open over the weekends but created a special facility to allow the students to access their IDs. The schools are closed for the first term holiday.
“All candidates intending to sit for the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations but do not possess IDs which are required for registration are advised to visit the nearest Civil Registry Offices countrywide from Saturday 26 June to Sunday 27 June 2021 between 0800-1500 hrs.
“This special exercise is over and above the Civil Registry’s normal operating hours during weekdays. Learners are therefore advised to bring the following documents as they apply for IDs; original long or short birth certificate and copy, ID of either parent or a death certificate for those having a deceased parent (s),” the department further said in the statement.
However, Acting Registrar-General Mr Henry Machiri told Sunday News yesterday that they had to suspend the exercise after they discovered that the numbers could fuel the spread of Covid-19.
“We suspended that process after seeing the overwhelming numbers of people who turned up. We realised that those who turned up are over and above those that were targeted, which shows us the demand for IDs in general. But we realised the surging numbers in Covid-19 cases and decided to suspend that process,” said Mr Machiri.
Mr Machiri said the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will not bar students that have not accessed their documents during this period from registering to write examinations. However, in Bulawayo some youths managed to get thier documents processed before the exercise was called off in the afternoon.
A Sunday News crew observed long queues of youths waiting to collect their IDs at the Bulawayo registry offices who said they were only going to process IDs for 80 students only.
However, at the district registry office at Tredgold Magistrates Courts they were not limiting the number of IDs that were being processed.
Registration of examinations has been extended due to candidates failing to provide identity cards for registration which were difficult to acquire in the Covid-19 era due to lockdown and shortages of consumables to process the ID cards.
Some of the youths told Sunday News that they joined the queues as early as 4am.
“We arrived at 4am but until now it’s 11am and we are still in the queue.
“However, the queue is moving, we will wait until we are served because we are afraid to come tomorrow as it is the last day of this exercise,” said a pupil who said he will write O-level at Cowdray Park Secondary School.-@NyembeziMu
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