REGISTRAR-GENERAL (RG) Tobaiwa Mudede has said processing and printing of passports cannot be decentralised to districts for fear of terrorism. VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR REPORTER
Mudede told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development yesterday that passport forms could be distributed at district level, but would be sent to central registry for processing after people filled them in.
Mudede said his office was processing on average 3 000 passports daily. He, however, said the office was experiencing challenges with the registration of people from the “Vapostori” sects who do not usually get birth certificates for their children. They also bury each other without burial orders, he claimed.
The RG said last year, his officers travelled to Kenya to register Zimbabweans of the “Vapostori” sect in that country.
“We also visited Marange to mobilise them to register births and deaths, but we realised they were scattered all over the country — and these people flourish to the extent that youngsters are now forming their own sects, that is why you see red cloths everywhere,” Mudede said.
He said it was not for the love of God, but for money that new churches and sects were flourishing in the country.
Mudede also told the committee that Zimbabwe had managed to deal with fraudulent marriages with foreign nationals engaged in bigamy crimes. He told the committee that to curb fraudulent marriages he ordered re-registration of marriage officers. Out of 2 000 officers, half of them were found authentic, he said.
“About 1 000 of these so-called vicars have gone into hiding,” he said.
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Mudede indicated that single women were now allowed to register births of their children using their maiden names if the father was not willing to do so.
“Married women can also get birth certificates for their children as long as they bring the father’s identification particulars,” he said.
