Interview: Mutumwa Mawere speaks on citizenship fight

Violet Gonda's guest on Hot Seat is Zimbabwean business mogul Mutumwa Mawere, who was recently told by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede that he had to renounce his South African citizenship before he could apply for a Zim identification document.

Mawere says under the new constitution, signed into law by President Mugabe last week, an individual cannot be denied dual citizenship if they were born in Zimbabwe. There are tens of thousands of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who were born in the country, but have taken citizenship in foreign countries where they now live and work. The businessman has now written to the Registrar General, who is the authority that administers the Citizenship Act, and has given him a deadline to make an official response explaining the status of the dual citizenship provisions in the Constitution, or he will seek redress in the Constitutional Court.

Zimbabwe's citizenship law has come under the spotlight again after a well known businessman with foreign citizenship was told by the country's Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede that dual citizenship is not permissible in the country. Mutumwa Mawere gives us the details in the Hot Seat programme.

What happened is I did go to the Registrar General to establish citizenship and I applied for the identity document and I was then referred to the Registrar General who then advised that the proper procedure and the only procedure, is for me to first come through immigration and then following that, then apply for Residence and then to be followed by an application for citizenship. As you know foreign born persons who wish to naturalize as Zimbabwe citizens are required to go through a roadmap that includes initially residency and then that is followed by citizenship as I think the same situation applies in the United Kingdom.

So in your case, you were born in Zimbabwe but you also have South African citizenship.

I was born in Zimbabwe, naturalized as a South African citizen, which means first I was a resident of South Africa, then I applied for citizenship having completed the minimum period that is required to apply one to apply for citizenship; and by operation of the Zimbabwe Citizenship Act it meant that when I acquired South African citizenship I forfeited the right to Zimbabwean citizenship. I think some people have misconstrued that I did renounce Zimbabwean citizenship but there's no provision in terms of Zimbabwean law for someone to renounce citizenship when you are naturalized in a foreign state and the same situation applies to South Africa. South Africa would not permit me to renounce South African citizenship unless I have the citizenship of another state and those facts were brought before the Registrar General and he simply dismissed that reality.

So what happens is, in the case of what the Registrar General is proposing, is that I will go to Zimbabwe - and for me to leave South Africa it is common cause that I must be a holder of a valid passport and that passport would have to be a South African travel document. If I renounce South African citizenship then it means I can't travel to Zimbabwe anyway to establish residence in Zimbabwe. So what he is proposing is that I go to South Africa, I go to Zimbabwe holding South African citizenship and then apply and then have residence, have a minimum of five to ten years before I can even be considered as a Zimbabwean or a Zimbabwean citizen. That is the absurdity that the Registrar General is proposing that, not just for me but for all the people who were born in Zimbabwe and by birth are qualified to be Zimbabwean citizens.

Doesn't the new constitution allow you to have dual citizenship?

I did raise that issue that in light of the new constitution I thought dual citizenship was permissible and he says no that's not the case. Even under the new constitution one still has the obligation to renounce foreign citizenship before you can apply for Zimbabwe citizenship - that's the version of the Registrar General. So I said to him - then what was the point of amending the constitution? I am a Zimbabweans, as a Zimbabwean born person you automatically have a right to acquire citizenship when you can't even exercise that right in terms of the law? He says that is the case. If I have any queries I must refer to Honourable Chinamasa the Minister of Justice - which I said how does the Minister of Justice come in? Either the constitution stipulates this and is applicable once it's in force then one doesn't have the obligation to renounce another citizenship because that gives you an automatic right to citizenship and the only way to exercise this is by you obtaining the document that pursuant to the operation of the Zimbabwean laws. And clearly the Zimbabwe constitution and the Zimbabwe Citizenship Act are not speaking to each other and therefore the extent of citizenship by birth - it will appear that the Zimbabwe Citizenship Act is unconstitutional and that's the point I made to the Registrar General.

So what are you going to do?

Like everyone else - is to make sure that this position is in writing because I find no legal authority supporting the version of the Registrar General. What I do know is that under the new constitution it's very clear that any person who is Zimbabwean-born, whose parents, either the father of the mother is Zimbabwean, is automatically entitled to citizenship but obviously the Registrar General is not a registrar of citizenship. He may be a registrar of political citizenship because he seems to have powers from God which gives him the right to appropriate citizenship as he wishes not as the constitution says.

So what would be the right forum to approach in a situation like this if the Registrar General is saying something that is totally different from what is in the new constitution?

Obviously the right forum would be the court to conclusively establish whether it was the intention of the drafters of this constitution and the people who voted that they would insert a provision which gives a right that cannot be exercised. So I'll definitely have to take this issue for a review by the courts but up to now I've yet to receive a written statement from the Registrar General confirming that the position that he asserted is the legal position and a constitutional one.

Why do you think this is happening and what are the implications, especially for the many Zimbabweans who are in a similar situation?

After 33 years of Independence there are a number of absurd occurrences in Zimbabwe. This is just one of many so anything is possible in Zimbabwe so one cannot put this as a special case but obviously the constitution supports the position that Zimbabwean citizenship is open and qualified for anyone who is born in Zimbabwe or outside Zimbabwe but of Zimbabwean parentage. That is the position but obviously the Registrar General for different reasons may wish this to be different but I would presume that the fact that this issue is being discussed and people are digesting what is happening in respect of, not just my case, there could very well be many people whose rights have been also affected, who don't know what would happen.

Just imagine Violet if you were to die in the UK and your body is to be buried in Zimbabwe it may very well be the case that the Registrar General may refuse your body to be buried in Zimbabwe because you are now deemed to be foreign. This is how absurd it is. Also for instance somebody who left home and got married to a foreign born person and decides to come back home, they'll now be subjected to an application for residence in their country of birth. What we do know is that in any other country, except the country of birth, one applies for citizenship but in the country of birth one doesn't apply to be born and one doesn't have a decision to make as to which place one is born and what the Registrar General is now proposing is that Zimbabwean born persons must also apply as if they were born in the air.

How do you respond to your critics who are saying that this is a publicity stunt and that you are only doing this as you want to participate in the forthcoming elections?

Obviously history when it is being made, it looks like publicity but if underpinning that experience there is no issue then I can't create an issue out of nothing but if people believe that they are secure, safe and with this kind of interpretation then one cannot help them. There's no better time to test this case than when the constitution is coming into force. This could have been somebody else, it just so happens that it's me and obviously because of the profile I was targeted. I went there as an ordinary person to seek, to establish citizenship. If I was just an ordinary person with citizenship elsewhere, I don't think I would have been subjected to the treatment or even to the VIP treatment of meeting the Registrar General when I'm applying just for an identity document. That doesn't call for the Registrar General to meet somebody. I consider myself privileged to have been invited to meet the Registrar General although I had no intention of meeting with him. But not many people would be given that honour and that privilege to meet with the Registrar General.

So to the extent that I did meet, if I kept it to myself having established this absurdity then it would be an injustice on other people who may be subjected to the same - because as you can imagine, it is very difficult for anyone to know what status you have because when you take foreign citizenship that occurs outside the borders of Zimbabwe and if it occurs outside the borders and knowledge of the Registrar General it means he has no personal knowledge of your status. It's only relevant for me because my status was known; I never sought to publicize my status because it was irrelevant. But it only came to the fore when these guys tried to use dirty tricks in Zimbabwe and that's how it came to be known.

That's how you know I'm a holder of South African citizenship but even when I was elected by Zanu PF in the provincial structures of Zanu in Masvingo, I was already a South African citizen, but no one knew about it because it was not relevant. But now it is common cause what citizenship I hold and it's common cause what is happening. That's why it has become relevant. If we don't test this ourselves who is going to test it for us?

So you said you were actually personally invited to see the Registrar General himself? Tobaiwa Mudede?

Firstly I went to apply in the ordinary course of business for an ID. At no stage did I seek to meet with the Registrar General. In the course of processing my ordinary application I then became the guest of the most senior person in that office and how did I acquire that status and how did the Registrar General know of my application? What I was told is that in the computer system my name was already flagged - the fact that I have a South African passport was already in the system which means for anyone else who goes to apply, they will give their ID documents and they will not even know that you are a holder of a foreign citizenship but in my case that is not the way I am now treated. So I'm already treated as a special person anyway by the system so whatever I do it's now no longer a private matter.

Right, did you try to get hold of the other political actors in the GNU to find out what they think about these latest developments since they are the ones who wrote this new constitution which allows dual citizenship by birth.

Yes as you appreciate once the constitution has been put into place it ceases to be political football for parties, it now becomes a state matter so I can only meet the Registrar General who has the power and authority to administer the Citizenship Act so that's what I did but obviously some of the political actors that you refer to are in the government and they will be aware of it. They maybe affected to the extent that the political parties that they represent may have members who fall into the same category and their silence can only be an issue that you investigate, not for me. I can only deal with the officer of the state in resolving this matter but I do hope that if my matter is resolved it will then open the door or clear the way for other people who may feel insecure or who may not know what is to become of them if they acquire the status that I now have - because ordinarily you will keep your foreign passport as a private matter, between you and the state concerned, it would not have any effect or impact on Zimbabwe but it would appear that my relationship with the South African government or the South African state is of such importance to Zimbabwe that the Registrar General feels that I'm not entitled to the right that is enshrined in the constitution.

Are you planning to contest in the forthcoming elections?

No. I hear that in the media about a plan and I've not been privileged - first I am reputed to have formed a party and yet I don't even, according to Mudede, qualify to be a Zimbabwean and this party, is a Zimbabwean party that is contesting the Zimbabwe elections and the unfortunate part is that my name becomes associated with a body corporate that should stand on its own. But it's not unusual for Zimbabwe because it's the only country where political parties have surnames where you have MDC-this, MDC-that, Zanu PF also has a surname but all the parties have surnames so it has become customary for people to expect parties to belong to somebody. So one person with two eyes, two hands, and two ears is now presumed to follow a party. That will be a most unusual party where I'm the follower and I'm the leader. I've not called anyone to say follow me because there's nothing to follow.

What I do wish is that Zimbabwe deserves better; Zimbabwe actually has to rise above the thinking of people like Mudede the Registrar General and he should not be afraid of anyone having the right to vote. After all the liberation movement was fought to allow people to express themselves freely. So I don't see that Zimbabwe can advance itself with small minds.

Do you think he was serious? Perhaps he was just... (interrupted)

He was serious, he was serious! He actually wanted me to surrender the passport to him, hand over my South Africa passport to him. I said no. He said; 'but Mawere how do I make sure you will renounce this SA citizenship I cannot take chances with you.' That is when I said you are an idiot - under what laws do I surrender a South African property to you?

What do you think it is really about?

Most people obviously when you leave home, they think you have deserted home, they think you have turned your back on home. Mudede when he was born, he only knew of one nationality so he has not known anything else except the government of Zimbabwe. After all do you know how old he is now? He is now 69 and the retirement age is 65. The man will only go when Mugabe goes. They have signed a contract that 'we have no other life except to be in the government of Zimbabwe'. So the fight is going to be long.

On Tuesday 4 June the Zimbabwean businessman filed an urgent application calling for the Constitutional Court to confirm the provisions regarding the issue of dual citizenship and to stop the voter registration exercise, which was supposed to restart on Monday, until his case is finalised.