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Mr Mudede

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Over 390 000 people have been issued with national identity documents (IDs) in the ongoing mobile registration exercise. Registrar-General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said this when he appeared before Parliament’s thematic committee on peace and security on Thursday. Mr Mudede told the committee that the RG’s Department had issued 393 898 national identity documents, 438 385 birth certificates and 13 593 death certificates as at October 27.

A breakdown of the statistics show that Midlands tops the other provinces on ID’s issued with 94 712, followed by Mashonaland West with 48 222, Mashonaland East 44 702, Mashonaland Central 44 464, Manicaland 44 169, Masvingo 32 623, Harare 32 551, Matebeleland North 24 279, Matebeleland South 19 712 and Bulawayo with 8 920.

Midlands also had the highest number of birth certificates issued with 76 048, followed by Manicaland with 72 988, Mashonaland West 63 800, Mashonaland Central 60 629, Mashonaland East 56 596, Masvingo 43 510, Matebeleland South 23 755, Matebeleland North 19 378, Harare 16 339 and Bulawayo 5 343.

Mr Mudede also rebutted assertions in some quarters that people in the Matebeleland regions were failing to access identity documents due to the disturbances that occurred in the region in the 1980s.

“Who is it who has not been registered? Our law says the nearest relative can register a child in the absence of the mother or father. “Those people that are being talked about have they lost all these relatives? Where were they when we had all these mobile registration exercises because this is not the first one,” Mr Mudede said.