The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
GOVERNMENT has directed its ministries to take up developmental roles in San/Tjwao communities, with schools easily accessible to those communities set to be built while the issuance of birth and other identity documents is also set to be prioritised.
The resolution follows the recent visit of a government delegation to the San Community in Tsholotsho District in Matabeleland North Province. The delegation noted that the San people lack birth certificates and identity documents, encounter high teenage pregnancies as well as very low school completion rates at primary and secondary school, and suffer food insecurity mainly due to human wildlife conflict and failure to practise modern agriculture.
Speaking at a post cabinet meeting briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said that government wished to inform the nation that the Second Republic has made undertakings to ensure that the right to equality and non-discrimination is realised.
“Cabinet directed as follows: that every Ministry should identify and take up a developmental role in areas inhabited by the San/Tjwao communities; that two or three primary and an equal number of secondary schools be set up as boarding institutions in areas easily accessible to San/Tjwao communities, in order to enhance school completion rates; that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage should instruct the Registrar General’s Office to issue birth and identity documents to the inhabitants of San/Tjwao and similar communities in Zimbabwe who have hitherto been unable to obtain such documentation. In that regard, all constraints relating to testimonies by parents, relatives and guardians should be wavered.”
Entry requirements would be waivered to allow members of those communities to gain entry into the country’s uniformed forces, Minister Mutsvangwa said.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care should establish clinics that will benefit the San/Tjwao and other similarly disadvantaged communities; the Security Ministries waiver the entry requirements to enable San/Tjwao citizens to enlist into the respective uniformed services; the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works expeditiously appoints headmen and chiefs to enhance the participation of the San/Tjwao in governance. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should ensure the timeous release of funds requested by Ministries for the implementation of development programmes and projects in San/Tjwao communities,” she said.
