1.7 million Zimbabweans have died since 2013

A total of 1.7 million Zimbabwean have died from July 2013 to date, registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede has said.

Mudede revealed the shocking statistics on Monday afternoon when he appeared the parliamentary portfolio on defense, and home affairs to answer questions on issuance of identity and travel documents.

"Since the 2013 elections, 1.7 million people have died but we are still working on compiling our total population statistics," Mudede said without giving figures of how many were born during the same period.

 He however, said in the registrar data base, Zimbabwe has about 10 million registered people.

Members of the portfolio committee bemoaned unfriendly registration regulations with some claiming there are a number of Gukurandi victims who are now adults without any form of identification.

The challenge, members of parliament said, has affected even Gukurahundi victims' children. Mudede also came under fire over spelling mistakes on identity documents.

"People from Harare who work at the Matabeleland Registrar offices use wrong spellings for our names and then you charge us for corrections," honourable Banda told Mudede.

In response, Mudede told the portfolio committee that if the mistake is on the part of the registrar's office, "one does not pay" for corrections to be made.

However, he said "sometimes our computers decline some spellings of names."

Mudede was also implored to take decisive action against touts who operate outside birth records and passport offices.