Online Reporter
Manicaland Bureau
NINETEEN new civil registry centres have been set up since 2018, significantly improving access to civil documentation, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said in Mutare yesterday.
In an interview on the sidelines of a familiarisation tour of departments in the city that fall under his purview, Minister Kazembe applauded the construction of civil registry offices in areas that previously did not have them, as part of the devolution and decentralisation agenda.
“We are grateful to President Mnangagwa for his visionary leadership that has enabled the country to have civil registration offices in areas that previously did not have,” he said.
“Since the inception of the Second Republic, we have been able to have 19 new such offices across the country, underlining President Mnangagwa’s development trajectory that espouses the need not to leave any place and no one behind.
“This explains the reason we now have e-passports being accessed in areas such as Chipinge and others. The idea is to lessen the burden for our citizenry.”
Access to civil documents such as birth certificates and passports has been a challenge, especially in marginalised areas, with people travelling to cities to get them.
However, Government has moved with speed to construct new passport offices countrywide, with such offices being opened in other countries such as South Africa for the convenience of people.
Minister Kazembe said the new provincial Civil Registry Building for Manicaland, which is almost complete in Mutare, will soon be replicated in Masvingo and Mashonaland Central.
“It is sad that our people have been getting civil documentation from substandard facilities, and this is the reason President Mnangagwa saw it fit that we have state-of-the-art offices to replace the dilapidated old structures.
“This is all part of His Excellency’s thrust to build back better. After this construction of state-of-the-art offices here in Mutare, we will be moving to Masvingo and Mashonaland Central.
“All other provinces will also have similar projects taking place, starting with areas where there is greater need. Now you can see the short space of time that it has taken for this new Provincial Registrar’s building in Mutare to be constructed. It is ample testimony to Government’s commitment to Vision 2030, when we hope to have an upper-middle-income economy as a nation.”
The new provincial civil registry office for Manicaland is expected to be complete by the end of March bringing relief to workers in the Civil Registration Department who had been operating from wooden cabin offices over the years.
Apart from touring the civil registry provincial offices, Minister Kazembe, who was accompanied by his deputy, Chido Sanyatwe during the tour, also took time to visit Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge district as well as Forbes Border Post.
