Habakkuk Trust is scaling up its access to civil documentation campaign by taking it to the national level to petition the parliament on the issue.
The organisation, in partnership with Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) set to conduct an all stakeholder’s conference in Bulawayo to draft a petition to lobby for the relaxation of registration requirements to facilitate access for citizens requiring documents such as birth certificates, national identity cards as well as the death certificates.
11 out of the 15 Wards in Matobo District where the organisation is implementing activities have identified the issue of access to birth certificates as a major challenge.
Even though the government recently introduced the mobile registration exercise, the major concern is that the programme will not benefit well deserving beneficiaries who are mostly school going children as it is mainly targeted at the voting age. According to the statistics obtained from Matobo District Services Inspector in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, there are some schools such as Zamanyoni Primary School which has an enrollment of 400 pupils of which 255 of them have no birth certificates.
The mobile voter registration process might not yield the intended results as it is running parallel with the voter registration exercise hence the need to lobby parliament.
Source: Habakkuk Trust
