Bulawayo residents have called for the relaxation of requirements for obtaining national identity documents and birth certificates during the ongoing mobile registration blitz, to allow them to register to vote.
A national identity document is one of the requirements needed when one wants to register to vote.
A CITE news crew visited some of the registration centres around the city where residents expressed displeasure at the service they were getting from the civil registry officials.
A resident who identified herself as Vivian from Mpopoma said it is a cumbersome process especially if you are an orphan.
“We all know that there is no unity amongst relatives these days and at times parents don’t even tell children where to find relatives. When trying to access documents you are then told to look for someone from your rural village where you come from, and that is a challenge,” she said.
She added that even collecting the documents is a struggle as they are directed from one office to the other.
“We were told to go to Msitheli and when we got there, we were told to go to Pumula and I am now here in Mpopoma. At Msitheli they told us they are not issuing the documents, so what is their role in this blitz when they are not issuing in this current blitz,” she said.
“The process is really slow, we are not foreigners in this country, we were born in this country, why should we be harassed as if we are in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, a resident at Nkulumane Hall said he failed to process his national Identification card as they said the village written in his mother’s I.D. and his birth certificate are different.
Another resident at the same centre said they are frustrated as the registry is prioritising people who are coming in groups.
“I woke up around 5 am to try to obtain an ID in Nketa, they only opened around 11 am and only to be told around that time to come here. I got here early but they are people who jumped the queue. There are people who are coming in groups and they are being prioritised. This is just corruption happening, we are now hungry, those people who come in groups take less than 30 minutes to finish their processes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Flata Ngwabi who failed to get her documentation at Mpopoma Hall said by denying her to obtain an ID they were infringing on her right to vote.
“My question is how are they helping us, how are we going to vote, I think these people are oppressing us, they are sabotaging us because the requirements for a lost document are too much,” said Ngwabi.
“They told us that they serve 10 000 people a day but in reality, they are serving about 10 people a day, there is a Sabotage here,” she said.
Ward 9 Councillor Donaldson Mabutho said the biggest challenge is that a number of people are being turned away.
Pelandaba- Mpopoma Member of Parliament, Charles Moyo said the process is very slow.
