Source: Tackling the bane of statelessness | The Herald December 19, 2019
Afonso Zvenyika alias Mosquito Ruth Butaumocho African Tapestry
Alfonso Zvenyika Lambarda is a name that you will not forget easily if you are a boxing fan.
Years after hanging up his gloves, Zvenyika’s name remains engraved, not only in the Halls of Fame but also in the hearts of many following his stinging jabs, which earned him the moniker “Mosquito”.During his career pursuits, the pencil-slim boxer won the Zimbabwe super flyweight, African Zone Six flyweight and Commonwealth light flyweight titles, with a career record of 17 wins (10 by KO), 12 losses and two draws.
He led a colourful life, both inside and outside the ring.Many will remember how during his heydays in the 1990s and 2000s, the Mbare-born boxer used to mesmerise the ghetto, not only because of his trade, which he had perfected to book, but for his money, which he used to dish out like confetti.
Despite all this, Zvenyika is a broken man.
Five of his eight children are stateless.As I write this article, the five who are all grown up neither have birth certificates nor national identity cards, to ascertain their citizenship.
In an interview with our sister paper Kwayedza earlier this year, Zvenyika revealed that his failure to acquire birth certificates and subsequently national identity cards for his children, has literally scuppered their hopes of a better future.
Zvenyika’s children are among more than 500 million people in Africa that do not have identity documents.Africa, which is home to 1,3 billion people, is faced with a critical legal identity gap, whereby many exist without being known to their governments and without any means to prove who they are. Half of these 1,3 billion people live in Africa and 250 million are women, Zimbabweans among them.
What is even sad is that some of the people are born and die without leaving a trace in any legal record or official statistic. The absence of reliable data for births, deaths and causes of death eventually renders most of the world’s poor as unseen, uncountable, and hence unaccounted for, which should not be the case in this day of technological advancement.
While it is criminal for parents not to acquire documentation for their children, scores of people, among the school-going age groups do not have birth certificates, resulting in some of them failing to sit for public examinations.
In 2015, Justice for Children Trust dealt with 718 cases of children that did not have birth certificates. In September 2016, the Trust handled 70 cases, all from Harare. While the reported cases were in Harare, this points to the problem of stateless people across Zimbabwe owing to a myriad challenges.
Some children are born at home, in which case a witness above the age of 18 needs to provide a written statement. In other cases, hospitals or clinics withhold birth records because the parents cannot pay outstanding fees, although it is illegal for those hospitals and clinics to do so.
Several challenges experienced at country level continue to constrain the successful operation of civil registration and the availability of vital statistics for use on developmental projects.
Undocumented persons who are often women, children, refugees and migrants face critical challenges in exercising basic human rights, in participating in society and seeking protection by the law, a situation that only worsens their vulnerability.
However, some of the challenges are beyond individuals. The challenges are a result of deficient national structures such as weak country ownership and leadership in national civil registration records as well as limited expertise on how to register citizens.Owing to this gap, the African Union (AU) has since embarked on a number of initiatives to ensure that member countries are capacitated on civil registration of their citizens.
The AU’s decision to invest extensively in civil registration came about after the realisation that civil registration was not being done properly, despite its importance to Africa’s economic and social development.
The continent is experiencing a technological revolution with an upsurge in the use of mobile devices, social media, information and communication technologies and big data, creating new channels for human interactions, and economic opportunities.
However, lack of formal and robust identification and poor civil registration and vital statistics on the continent has contributed to the marginalisation and exclusion of many citizens, hence the decision by the AU to pour in resources.
Several United Nations agencies and a defined civil registration group that would be coordinated by the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)recently pledged to register 500 million people in Africa.
The pledge was made during fifth Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration held in Lusaka in October that was convened to address civil registration challenges on the continent.
While the AU’s push for command civil registration is a noble initiative, it needs political will from member states to ensure that the goal is achieved. It is, therefore, critical for member countries to step up efforts by ensuring that no one is left behind in documentation, through the implementation of practical and achievable measures.
One of the critical elements that governments need to work on is gain public trust on the importance of civil registration. Once states gain public trust, they will be assured of public participation. We, therefore, commend the Registrar-General’s Office in Bulawayo which in October partnered with apostolic sect members in ensuring that members of the white-robed church access national documents. The partnership came about following a number of awareness programmes by the Registrar-General’s Office on the importance of acquiring national documents.
Having gained that public confidence, the Government will now need to provide more financial support towards the core needs of running civil registration as well as provide adequate personnel to drive the process.
Access to registration offices by the public should be within reach to ensure that people are not discouraged by the long distances and sometimes bureaucracy which eventually discourages them from registering.
With the 2030 sustainable development agenda, pointing to the need to acquire legal documents for all, there is plenty of time for governments to make progress and reduce the number of stateless people living on the continent.
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