TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage says most births and deaths in Zimbabwe are not registered within the stipulated time frame, particularly in rural areas.
Addressing chiefs and other stakeholders in Bulawayo, the Ministry’s permanent secretary Gerald Gwinji said Zimbabwe, like many countries in Africa, has no well-functioning Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems.
“Most countries in Africa do not have well-functioning Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems. As a result, most people are born and die without leaving a trace of any legal record and official statistic. Equally in Zimbabwe, it was established that most births and deaths are not being registered within the stipulated time frame,” Gwinji said.
He added: “Approximately 5% of births are registered within 42 days whilst 3% of deaths are registered within 30 days. There are also glaring gaps in notification of births and deaths that occur in communities and the absence of a formal notification system that captures these vital events.”
He said strengthening Civil Registration and Vital was one of the initiatives that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, through the Civil Registry Department, is undertaking in order to address barriers to registration of births and deaths at community level.
“The initiative is also aimed at strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems as we rally towards realisation of Vision 2030.
“Let me take this opportunity to highlight that, registration of vital events represents the legal recognition of a person’s existence and provides a basis upon which life can be tracked from birth to death,” he said.
According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe [Amendment 20] Act 2013, every person has a right to be registered and acquire civil registration documents.
“As a country, we therefore have a responsibility to establish how many people are born and die each year and the only reliable way to count everyone and to track all births and deaths is through civil registration,” Gwinji said.
He said government has equipped traditional leaders with skills and knowledge to issue birth and death confirmation records for individuals born or die outside of healthcare facilities in rural areas.
“Traditional leaders are custodians of indigenous knowledge systems, which include the cultures, heritage and traditions of our communities and have the responsibility to uphold and protect them.
“Traditional leaders therefore, have a critical role to play in the implementation of this programme and they are already mandated by the Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:021 to notify vital events,” Gwinji said.
He added: “They will be issuing birth and death confirmation records which will serve the same purpose as confirmation records issued at health facilities and will be used for registration purposes.”
Speaking at the same event, president of the National Chiefs Council Fortune Charumbira said most people in the rural areas struggle to register for births and deaths.
He said mothers who gave birth at home or anywhere outside a health institution were required to be accompanied by a witness to be able to apply for a birth certificate for the child.
