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On the eastern foot is a vast tract of prime farming land that stretches from Guruve to Mvurwi, the bread basket of Zimbabwe.
On the western foot is the mining town of Mutorashanga. In the mountain belly, people work like moles, foraging its womb in search of very mineral that impregnates it.
From the mine, the land breaks flat into prime farming land stretching to Banket, Chinhoyi and Karoi, another bread basket of Zimbabwe.
Here thousands of aliens, most of whom are products of a generation of migrant workers who came to work on the chrome mines and farms during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, still live.
Generation after generation has been unable to vote, despite making serious economic contributions to the country’s mining sector.
Johane Mwale of Malawian origin, joined his relatives in 1976, after they had come to work on the mines during the federation.
He has since moved to work on a farm in Karoi after chrome mining slowed down in recent years.
Since independence in 1980, he has watched every election come and pass without him making a contribution to the running of the country, whose mining industry he laboured for.
With the new Constitution, Mwale has been able to register to vote without any problem. In fact, he says it took him only five minutes to register since all his papers were in order.
His documents have always been in order and once the opportunity came, he found it very easy to align his documents with the law and be registered as a voter.
“One good thing is that the whole process is for free. You pay no cent. I have always wanted to vote but I could not. Over the years my friends and myself, were only passengers and now we want to take this opportunity to go and vote. It will be our first time and for me I have lived in Zimbabwe since 1976 but never voted.
“I had my ID marked alien so they asked me for proof of residence and I did not have it. I then went to see Mr Abel Matsika the aspiring Zanu-PF councillor in our area, Ward 7 and he facilitated that we get letters to confirm that we stay at this plot from the outgoing councillor.
“Both men have been very useful to us and we managed to register. I think there are more than 100 of us who managed to register in this area. Mr Matsika took us personally to go and get the letters as proof of residence.
“There was a lot of pressure during the first registration period but when the second period was announced, there was no longer pressure. The queues are now shorter and at times there are no queues to talk about.
Mr Matsika, a businessman and aspiring councillor for Ward 7 Karoi, said he was touched by the plight of many aliens who wanted to vote and decided to use his truck to help many aliens get registered.
“The ward I am contesting was won by the MDC-T the last time and so the person who could write letters as proof of residence was him. In the case of those workers at A2 plots, it was the farm owners, so I approached them and they were very much forthcoming.
“I am glad that all those who wanted to register in and around this area have really been helped. I am progressive thinking and development oriented and I want everyone to vote and of course, to vote for me and my party. So, naturally, I count every vote important.
“There has been massive voter registration in all these places were former aliens lived. I talk to colleagues in other wards and their story is similar to mine. People have registered but there are a few extreme cases that are difficult to handle,’’ says Mr Matsika.
One such case is Mercy Sande, who was born of a Mozambican mother on the farms on the outskirts of Karoi town in 1990. Her mother thereafter moved to Sutton Mine in Mutorashanga, where she still lives.
Her mother worked interchangeably as general labourer on the farms or on the chrome mines. On some occasion she would retreat to Mozambique to visit relatives and stay there for several months.
Mercy’s mother was impregnated by a man who subsequently denied paternity, forcing her to be raised by the single mother.
For her entire life she has lived and worked on the chrome mine claims and farms in and around Mtorashanga and Mvurwi, close to her mother.
Now aged 23, she wishes to register as a voter for the forthcoming harmonised elections and has found herself ina dilemma.
On three occasions she has tried to register as a voter and on three occasions she has failed to register, leaving her very disappointed.
She must start by acquiring a birth certificate, which she is finding difficult without her only parent, her mother, who died a few years ago.
“I have not been able to register because the laws do not cater for a person like me. I would have loved to register as a voter but I have been told three times that my case is very complicated. My mother came to Zimbabwe as a young girl from Tete province in Mozambique.
“She remained a Mozambican but she met this man, who must have been Ghanaian and she was impregnated. The man denied paternity and also moved out of the area. He was never seen. My mother died three years ago, but had told me the story.
“In the farms, very few people acquired national identity cards. They really did not need them and I have no documentation for my mother, including a death certificate.
“While I was at the registration entre I met six other people with a similar predicament and we shared our problem and we decided to put our case to rest. We will not attempt again,’’ she says.
A visit to mining and farming towns where the majority of aliens in Zimbabwe live has shown that there are many people in Sande’s predicament, with foreign parentage and no document to prove who they are. Such people naturally find the process difficult.
According to the new Constitution of Zimbabwe
“Citizens by birth are persons: – who are born in Zimbabwe by a mother or a father who was a Zimbabwean citizen or any of their grandparents was a Zimbabwean citizen by birth or descent; or
- who, if born outside Zimbabwe, either of their parents was a Zimbabwean citizen and ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe but working outside the country for the State or an international organisation; or
- who, when found in Zimbabwe, are children under the age of 15 years and their nationality and parents are unknown; is presumed to be a Zimbabwean child.
- who were born in Zimbabwe before the coming into force of this Constitution and one or both their parents was a citizen of a country which is a member of the Southern African Development Community and was ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe.”
However, for the majority of aliens who already had marked identity cards, registration has been a very easy process. The ordinary voter registration process takes less than five minutes.
Everything else being equal, voter registration has been a simple process not taking more than five minutes, when papers are in order. The long queues that characterised voting centres several weeks ago, have since disappeared.
Online Reporter