She stated that she no longer had the courage to go back to the Tsholotsho district registry as the district registrar was impatient and hostile. Many others complained to Amnesty International about being poorly treated by officials at the Tsholotsho registry offices. One said “I fear going to the registry offices because of the officer who is impatient with people. Some of the officers were demanding US$30 from me to obtain an ID.” Another woman said officers demanded US$500-1,000 for documents. Two other women said they had been paying officials at Tsholotsho to look for their documents - “a job they are paid by the state to do.” According to one of the women, “they are arrogant, and the way they treat you, you will never want to go back”. They said that the Tsholotsho office has been collecting their fingerprints since 2018 without issuing them with documents. In Mazwi village, about 40km from Bulawayo, 49-year-old Jonathan said the registry officials “chase you like a dog.” He told Amnesty International that he had given up attempting to obtain identity documents. Jonathan’s neighbour in the same village said: “they are arrogant. When you give them your papers and they see that they are not adequate they just say, ‘next person’ without explaining.” She says she has tried more than 20 times to obtain documents. When she went to the Msiteli provincial registry in Bulawayo in February 2018 she was not treated in a dignified manner, and told Amnesty International researchers that “the officers were so arrogant and mean, and they accused me of lying.” In focus group discussions at Arcturus Mine, former migrants and their descendants confirmed poor treatment at the Harare registry offices. They said that their experience was that people of foreign origin did not receive dignified service from officers. Some went to Likwenda House registry office in Harare and were referred to Goromonzi, about 60km away. One of these, Howard Mphande, said that when he arrived at Goromonzi officers demanded US$40 to correct an error they had made with his surname. 6.4 BUREAUCRATIC FAILURES LEAD TO DENIAL OF CITIZENSHIP Most people interviewed in Matabeleland were entitled to citizenship under the law but were unable to meet the necessary procedural steps. Vaina Ndlovu is a 68-year-old resident of Tsholotsho who does not have a birth certificate. She told Amnesty International that her father was abducted by Fifth Brigade forces during Gukurahundi in 1983 and the family never saw him again. Vaina’s mother tried to obtain a birth certificate for her in 1985. According to Vaina, before independence in 1980 it was the practice of some people not to register births and marriages and to seek documentation later when required for official business. When she tried to obtain a death certificate for her father, registry office officials told her they needed witnesses to confirm that her father was abducted during Gukurahundi. Her five brothers were unable to help as they had all relocated to South Africa and assumed new names. Without her father’s death certificate, Vaina cannot obtain a birth certificate, which she needs to get a passport. As a descendant of a victim of Gukurahundi, her freedom of movement has been affected by her inability to establish her citizenship. Alex Zengeni is a 31-year-old man who lives in the poor suburb of Epworth, about 20km from Harare. He was born in Zimbabwe and has no birth certificate or ID. His Zimbabwean mother died in 1999 and his Zambian father in 1994. He does not have their death certificates. He does not know his father’s relatives and he cannot apply for any form of identity in Zimbabwe. This prevented him from going beyond Grade 7 at school. Alex has two children, neither of whom have birth certificates because he has no ID. He went to the registry offices in Harare in 2005 to try to obtain identity documents, but officials demanded his parents’ death certificates and two relatives with the same surname as his father. According to an official, in such cases the death certificate of the father and testimonies from two relatives are required “or the person has to go back where he came WE ARE LIKE “STRAY ANIMALS” THOUSANDS LIVING ON THE MARGINS DUE TO STATELESSNESS IN ZIMBABWE Amnesty International 20