Gwanda District Registrar meets community over civic documentation

Gwanda District Registrar Mr. George Dumani, has warned members of the community over the importance of civil documentation and the manner they are obtained.

He made the remarks following the invitation by the Habakkuk Trust Action Team for Gwanda Ward 13.

The Action Team, advocating for  access to birth certificates conducted a research where they discovered that there were approximately 1350 people without birth certificates in the Ward.

The Action Team therefore engaged the District Registrar's office over the issue and wrote a letter requesting Mr. Dumani to visit their community and address people's concerns regarding access to identity documents especially birth certificates.  

The Action Team organized a Ward meeting which was attended by 221 people. Action Team Convener Mr. Ian Sibanda said the community was grateful to the Action Team for inviting the registrar.

"The meeting was really helpful to most community members as some did not have knowledge on how to obtain these documents," He said.

"The district registrar explained the importance of having identity documents and answered all the questions people asked. He further encouraged the community to utilize mobile registration which will take place just before elections so that people can exercise their right to vote."

Sibanda said the training they got from Habakkuk Trust on lobby and advocacy made it easier for them to approach the District Registrar's office and convince him to go to the community.

"When we presented our research findings to Dumani, he was shocked that there was such a huge figure of people without birth certificates in just one Ward, that's why he had to come himself to address the community."

Sibanda said as the Action Team they will continue encouraging the community to obtain identity documents.