Beitbridge East legislator, Cde Albert Nguluvhe has implored citizens, particularly those in remote areas, to take advantage of the periodic mobile teams in civil registration programmes by the Government and acquire the necessary primary and secondary identification documents.
While the main offices in major centres are always open, the Civil Registry Department has conducted national mobile registration exercises where teams travel into the rural areas and issue the birth and death certificates and national identity documents.
Government was responding to delays caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 that delayed the issuing of critical documents thereby creating a backlog.
Already, President Mnangagwa had instructed the registry department to relax conditions that were restricting some citizens from obtaining birth certificates, IDs, and even death certificates for their loved ones.
Speaking at a Zanu PF campaign rally at Dumba village in Ward 2, Beitbridge, on Monday, Cde Nguluvhe said a birth certificate was the first primary document one needs to get either a national ID or a passport.
He said the Government has also opened up sub-offices for the Civil Registry in some cases at the ward level to improve service delivery.
Cde Nguluvhe said more passport processing offices had also been opened countrywide to promote safe migration.
“The Government is aware of the challenges people have often faced in accessing birth certificates and national identification documents, and hence we continually carry out mobile registration programs,” he said.
“At the same time, I want to encourage those without the primary documents to use civil registry offices dotted across the country. It is important that every citizen has seamless access to such important documents”.
Cde Nguluvhe said primary documents were critical during voter registration and voting, as well as in terms of resource allocations since they provide a guideline in terms of population distribution.
It is understood that in some instances, the unavailability of birth certificates is affecting the transition of children from primary to secondary levels of education.
“At the same time we want to encourage those wishing to engage in cross border travel to get documents, especially people from Beitbridge where we have opened a passport processing office,” said Cde Nguluvhe.
He said it was unnecessary for people to engage in unsafe migration methods when the Government has opened more passport offices.
Source Zimbabwe Situation
