The Sunday News
Loveness Mpofu, Sunday News Reporter
HABBAKUK Trust in collaboration with the Southern African Parliament Support Trust (SAPST) has started lobbying the Government to ensure what they say would be “ease of access” to birth certificates in the Matabeleland region.
The two organisations have constituted action teams from different wards in Matobo, Plumtree, Binga, Nkayi, Gwanda, Umzingwane, Tsholotsho, Bubi and Insiza districts that met at a local hotel in Bulawayo last Friday to draft a petition, which they intend to submit to Parliament.
Habbakuk Trust CEO Mr Dumisani Nkomo said they have been pursuing the issue of birth certificates from a grass roots level and the petition was a way of taking the issue to a higher level.
“We feel that the registration process should be lengthened and made more accessible to rural communities and people living with disabilities.
Retraining of registrar officers is also crucial so that they are receptive to the demands and aspirations of people at a local level. We really believe that it’s important for citizens to engage Parliament because it’s in the interest of the general public,” he said.
Mr Ian Sibanda from Gwanda’s Ward 13 said there were 1 475 people without birth certificates in the ward and the reason was that most of the children were born outside the country and their guardians were failing to raise the $50 fee that was required.
He added that the centres for registration were very far, which poses a challenge for many people to travel and get assisted. The challenge that came out across different wards in Matobo district was that of a mismatch between IDs left home and those taken by parents when they go to South Africa.
The community representatives said: “People change their names when they get to South Africa and the challenge that arises when guardians, who are mostly old people, try to get birth certificates for their grandchildren is that there will be a mismatch between the parent’s name on the South African birth record and that which is left home.”
Mr Amos Dube, a representative from Nkayi, said the challenge faced in his district was centralisation of the registration points. He said 1 439 people have no birth certificates in his ward and it’s partly because of long distances they have to travel to Nkayi centre. He said the attendance to those who manage to reach the centre was also slow.
“Another factor is that many people have identity documents but they don’t have birth certificates. The person is told to go to the registrar offices in Bulawayo and is supposed to go with a minimum of three witnesses. Most of the time, the person won’t be having money to transport the three witnesses, he or she gives up and says let me remain with my ID only,” he said.
Mrs Elizabeth Ndlovu from Matobo said access to birth certificates was still a challenge to many people. She said people without birth record numbers were referred to cities where they were born, which was a tiresome and expensive process.
