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 Annexure 17: Summary Report of Monitoring Visits Conducted by ZHRC to Selected Registrar General’s Offices between 4 – 12 March 2019 ZHRC undertook monitoring field visits to selected RG’s offices, ahead of the Public Hearings as part of the evidence gathering processes and to enhance understanding of:      Challenges faced by RG offices as they discharge their mandate Geographical, infrastructural and operational environment of the RG offices, Challenges on access to documentation faced by members of the public Citizens’ satisfaction with services offered by the RG offices, Behaviour and attitudes of officials at the RG office, The Provincial, District and sub-offices visited included Bulawayo Provincial Office, Bulawayo Mpilo Hospital Sub Office, Matabeleland South Provincial Office and Gwanda District Office, Matabeleland North Provincial Office and Lupane District Office, Manicaland Provincial Office, Mutare District Office, Mutare General Hospital Sub-office and Birchenough Bridge Sub Office, Masvingo Provincial Office, District Office and Chatsworth Sub Office, Midlands Provincial Office and Kwekwe District office, Mashonaland Central Provincial Office, Bindura District Office and Bindura Hospital Sub-office, Mashonaland East Provincial Office, Marondera District Office and Marondera General Hospital Sub-Office and Mashonaland Provincial Office and Chinhoyi District Office. Some of the key findings and common/recurring challenges raised by RG personnel, members of the public and observed by ZHRC include but are not limited to the following:        Limited and inadequate authorized staff establishment, which has not been reviewed in a very long time and cannot meet the demands of clients who require services175, Unavailability of foreign currency for consumables for polythene national identity cards and passports leading to delays in processing applications, Lack of adequate equipment such as computers especially in sub-offices, leading to issuance of manual documents, Challenges with the issuance of national identity cards due to break down of printing machines which were reportedly serviced and fixed only in Harare leading to delays in issuing of national IDs, Vehicles for most stations were a challenge, some being over more than 10 years old, having mechanical problems and some were reported to be off the road due to breakdowns. This led to mobility problems which affected administrative processes such as transportation of documents from one office to the other and dispatching of fingerprints for verification176, Some RGs offices were operating from rented premises which were inadequate for in meeting the RGs functional needs such as filling and working space. This led to RG officials working in squashed spaces. This problem cascades down to Ddistrict and Sub-offices, Some offices did not meet disability friendly standards177, such as availability of wheel chair ramps and rails, for example, at the time of the monitoring visit, the Bulawayo District office had a complement of 12 officers to deal with the public, while the Provincial office had 20 officers. The processes which included interviews, filling in forms, data capturing, recording and printing for birth certificates, payments, biometric data collection, for passports were long processes all being done by the few staff who had to do double duties in order to try and clear the queues. This meant that queues would always be a characteristic of the Provincial and District Office in Bulawayo. There were 4 officers serving the public in the Births and Deaths office. The office orderly was being used to do filling. It was noted that the Birth and Deaths office required staff members who would solely do the pulling and filling of records as this was time consuming, when done by the already thin staff establishment in that office. 175 for example, at the time of the monitoring visit, out of the 7 districts in Lupane, only 3 districts were reported to have vehicles. Kwekwe District office had only one station vehicle which was reported to be very old and not ideal in running a district office. 176 the filing space was very limited such that some of the documents were stacked on the floor in the corridors. Retrieval of records was therefore difficult because they are kept piled up due to limited space. it took time for one to go through the stacks of records to find documents. The Bindura offices were said not to be sufficient to house a provincial office therefore it has not been possible to accommodate the records for the province. All copies for the province have had to be returned to the districts because there is no space to keep the records. In the district 177 128 128