N AT I O N A L I N Q U I R Y R E P O R T ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION For Human Dignity 3.3.6 Migration and Unknown Whereabouts of Parents. Out of thirty-eight point five per cent “I have two grandchildren born in South Africa. Their (38.5%) of people citing socio-cultural father (my son) went to South Africa in 2008, and he died barriers to documentation, nine point three in October 2018. He only came back as a dead body per cent (9.3%) referred to unknown accompanied by his two children. The body and the whereabouts of parents as a barrier to children came with the motor vehicle from the funeral accessing documentation. For example, parlor. I was not given any documents of the children; l where one or both parents migrated could not ask for anything as I was grieving. I only have internally or externally, leaving the death certificate. I have never met my daughter in law, 87 unregistered children . There were also but she is from South Africa. The mother did not attend the cases of children born outside the country funeral. I have tried to get birth certificates for these and were sent back illegally into the country children using the death certificate, but RG asked for 88 using “Omalayitsha” without maternal witnesses, and I do not know them” 56-year-old documentation, and as a result, guardians female witness from Kadoma Urban Mashonaland of those children faced challenges in West registering them. The majority of parents who migrated eventually lost contact with the guardians of their children after being away for a long time and some failed to return home to register their children. The same challenges were experienced by fathers who had custody of their children but their mothers migrated to other districts or other countries or abandoned the children. Attempts by the fathers to register such children in most cases are futile because the DRG offices insist on the presence of the mothers or maternal relatives to be witnesses. 3.3.7 Falsification of Documents and Registration Information89. It was established through testimony that some parents falsified information in order to get documentation. For instance, Zimbabweans who had acquired false identity documents particularly whilst in South Africa so as to access jobs and social services. The fake names they acquired made it difficult to subsequently register their children in Zimbabwe because the children’s birth confirmation records captured the false identity of parent(s). Therefore, because of the disparity between the names on the Zimbabwean national documents and foreign health cards, parents faced challenges in proving themselves as parents of their children when they sought to register the children in Zimbabwe90. Falsification of information was also noted in cases of those who failed to meet the registration requirements. Such persons resorted to providing false information to effect registrations, for example, claiming to be the parents or relatives when they were not. It was, however, noted that most witnesses who acquired birth certificates through false registrations did so out of desperation emanating from their failure to meet the rigid requirements of the law. In some cases, father’s in-law ended up registering their daughters in law, resulting in challenges when the daughter’s in-law wanted to register their children in the husbands’ name as they would be viewed as brothers and sisters91. See Chapter 4 on section on the elderly and children. This is a Ndebele word which refers to cross border transporters. 89 See Annexure 7 on Supplementary Witness Voices (Testimonies). 90 In cases where health cards were tampered with or have falsified information, the DRG would require the person to write an affidavit to explain the falsification and paying an admission of guilt fine to the police. 91 This is a case of a man who claimed to be the father of his daughter-in-law Manicaland Province. 87 88 30 30