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 “We tried to acquire birth certificates at a mobile registration exercise and if you had no goat or ZWL20 to bribe the officers, you were not assisted. For ZWL20 they would issue birth certificates for 2 or 3 children.” 44-year-old woman, Gokwe South, Midlands Province . 3.1.6. Language Barriers “The other issue is language barrier where most of the people in our area are Ndebele speaking and officials do not understand Ndebele. It makes it difficult on registration, for example, one Sibanda in our area who went intending to acquire a birth certificate and was asked in Shona what his name was, he did not understand and thought that he was being asked where he comes from to which he responded ‘Donsa’ and the RG’s officer recorded his surname as Donsa instead of Sibanda. Surnames are a challenge. One lady had her name recorded as Sicha instead of Sitsha and when she tried to explain she was told to collect the birth certificate as it was. There are a number of local surnames which are misspelt.” 32-year old male Councillor, representing Donsa community, Midlands Province. 3.1.7 Clerical Errors “My challenge is that there is a mistake of dates on my birth certificate and ID. Birth certificate indicates 31 September which does not exist. I took the birth certificate at a mobile registration at Chibuwe Primary. I was born on the 30th September. I was told that to correct they required my mother to be present. I can’t afford to take her to the RG offices because she is far. Since it’s their error, I think they should just fix it. I could not vote because of the error on my ID”. 27-year-old male witness Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province My birth certificate has different spellings with that on the ID. The birth certificate has the correct names. I produced my birth certificate to register my ID. It is difficult to acquire a passport because it appears as if the birth certificate and ID belong to 2 different people”. 55-year-old witness, Bulawayo Province. “My problems started in 2008 when I wanted to obtain a passport and was informed that the plastic ID was wanted. I then proceeded to Murombedzi that is the district where I obtained my ID so they took my ID and my birth certificate after going through I was told that I was a deceased person. I was told that my ID numbers were put under the name of my father who is deceased. I asked what I was then going to do because I have 13 children who need those birth certificates and because of that issue I cannot obtain them. Today when I came here, I was advised at the Registrar’s desk to go to Karoi so that they can resurrect me”. Male witness, Mashonaland West Province “My surname is supposed for be Nyilika and not Khumalo. I raised this issue with the RG at the time that l took my identity card, my birth certificate has the correct Nyilika surname. My children are registered as Nyilika. I am not related to the Khumalos, as I am from the Xhosa tribe, I am not Ndebele. I had to accept it because at that time l was in serious need of an ID. If I die none of my children will be able to get my body because we will appear not to be related.” 82-year-old male witness, Insiza District, Matabeleland South Province 3.1.8. Non-acceptance of Confirmation Letters from Traditional Leaders “There are few things that are a challenge to us as a community. The first thing is that people do not have birth certificates and when we want our people to get these documents from the registry offices, we face several challenges and some setbacks some of which include the fact that whatever the village heads will be testifying about is not accepted in their offices. When all this is happening, we take a close analysis of this we end up assuming that the higher officers at the registry offices are failing to accept the traditional leaders as leaders who are leading the people. We believe that the registry authorities are supposed to respect us especially when we author some documents and letters. Again, we ask the Registry Offices that the village head or the kraal head is the one who has the power and authority and he is the one who knows the general welfare and suffering that people undergo. So, they have to respect everything that the village head will have said based on the evidence they will have given”. Traditional Leader, Matabeleland South Province. “… we do not look forward to people being returned back home without being assisted whilst they are in possession of letters from the chief… it is as if I do not care for my people” Traditional Leader, Matabeleland South Province. 84 84