Realigning personal documents a priority All Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to birth certificates and other identity documents issued by the State
All Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to birth certificates and other identity documents issued by the State

All Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to birth certificates and other identity documents issued by the State

Hildegarde The Arena
THE Zimbabwe Constitution has made provisions for the issuance of birth and death certificates for every citizen. Other important identity documents include drivers’ licence and/or passports. Chapter 3, Section 35 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) on citizenship states: Persons are Zimbabwean citizens by birth, descent or registration.

All Zimbabwean citizens are equally entitled to the rights, privileges and benefits and are equally subject to the duties and obligations of citizenship.
All Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to the following rights and benefits, in addition to any others granted to them by law — to passports and other travel documents; and, to birth certificates and other identity documents issued by the State.

However, the law and reality are sometimes avowed enemies. In as much as the relevant departments that issue out these documents are making coveted efforts to ensure that every citizen has these documents without delay, unfortunately more needs to be done because they are not the end users since the recipients use these IDs elsewhere.

If truth be told many, including our lawmakers will vouch that more needs to be done, since these same documents can deprive citizens of their Constitutional rights.

When a lot of people present copies of these IDs at the workplace, bank, medical aid society or any other place where these documents are required, they are usually accompanied with affidavits written by parents and/or guardians. Why?

This writer recalls a time when the only people that had identification papers were men. The IDs were issued in two stages — the waiting pass (chitikinyani) — for young men and the national IDs for men. Women were never a part of this until marriage when some and not all had marriage certificates.

While birth certificates were introduced in the late sixties for school going pupils, research will show that the rationale behind the issuance of those birth certificates was never explained to people.

This is why a lot of people have birth certificates that do not reflect their true identities: birth date, names, etc.
All these pieces of paper were viewed by people as the colonial government’s way of manipulating them. It was an understandable argument because these men were issued with these IDs in order for them to pay the mandatory tax (whether employed or not), and in order for them to secure employment.
Other than that, these IDs were useless.

If the rationale had been clearly spelt out right from the beginning, the format on names would have been standardised, reducing the burden faced by current generations of appending affidavits on documents that are protected by the Constitution.

The writer also recalls that during the liberation struggle, the Rhodesian government started issuing IDs to all adults including women.
People treated these as “passes,” meant to curb their movements. Since the rationale was also not explained, people used any family name they thought of, while some used nicknames as first names and/or surnames.

However, after independence, the new Government tried to formalise the issuance of these documents, but the missing link has been on standardisation of surnames. Why should 10 children from the same father and mother bear different surnames, as is the case right now?

The writer is speaking from experience and the caveat is that procrastination is a human trait, which can be very costly, frustrating and time-wasting.
There are day-to-day issues, which many of us never consider important until that day when the Lord decides to call one of you.

This is when you will realise that despite making enviable arrangements, there will be some hitches along the way, hitches that might result in delaying the interment of your loved one.

With so many loved ones dying, it is an unnecessary “luxury” to delay the burial of your relative just because the names on the relatives’ and the deceased’s documents do not match.

The writer was used to the fact that our dear mother had to always write affidavits for us her children because our father is late and because when she got her national ID in the village in the early 80s, her marriage certificates were all in Harare.
Without those certificates, she had no option but to use her maiden name.

It seemed harmless for years because no one ever called her by her maiden name. We only heard that name when she visited the doctor and/or in pharmacies.
But the importance of why she should have the name on her national ID normalised only became a reality on November 8 this year, the day after she passed on.

Everything was moving according to schedule until a relative called and asked for her marriage certificates because the funeral parlour had to verify my name and her name.

Since I did not know where those certificates were, they asked for my long birth certificate.
I was glad that I knew where it was, but when I got to my mother’s name, I realised that the surname she listed was one of her many family names. I had seen it with my siblings’ birth certificates. It was harmless because they were all her family names, totems and sub-totems included. Even her first name was not properly spelt out.

The only solution was for me to go to the funeral parlour’s offices leaving hundreds of people who had come to pay their condolences. My physical presence did not mean that the matter would be instantly resolved.

We argued for a while about the names and the rationale and even produced our father’s death certificate. I thought that it would be easy because his death certificate lists three first names, and my birth certificate only had one of them.

The worst part was that the death certificate listed that my father was “married”, but did not give the spouse’s name, and in my view, this was a loophole which could have been manipulated, but it was never.

Although the issue was resolved in record time, after I had written an affidavit, I wondered whether we were the only family that used different names, which were always a hassle when dealing with legal issues.

But, I saw many people at the funeral parlour’s offices, who were seized with the same problem, and considering the number of funeral parlours, it meant that this was a major issue.

Can’t the Government come up with a mechanism that ensures that the names on people’s personal documents are rationalised and/or realigned in order to lessen the burden of pain, and in order to save time?
This is a challenge that affects everyone. It becomes even more critical when you have to deal with the deceased’s estate.

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