THE world has increasingly shrunk into a global village on the back of multi-media technology and interactions among nation-states in political, economic and cultural affairs. Against this backdrop, it becomes problematic when sections of the population whose parents or grand-parents are not originally from Zimbabwe are classified as “aliens”.
In fact, the crafters of the 2013 Constitution realised the need to be progressive and more open-minded, which is why the provision for dual citizenship was allowed despite some politicians’ disdain.
We, therefore, believe that utterances by Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede recently before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that while people that are not originally from Zimbabwe can access birth certificates, that does not guarantee them citizenship as they would remain “aliens”.
That classification of the population means that they cannot enforce their constitutional right to choose a representative of their choice at local, regional or national level. According to Mudede, who has been at the forefront of marginalising the so-called aliens, they can only vote if they “regularise” their documents.
Although Mudede claimed a child born of foreign parents takes citizenship of those parents, the 2013 Constitution says that if one is born in Zimbabwe, they automatically become a citizen. Perhaps Mudede would care to explain what he means by “regularising” one’s documents.
There are probably thousands of people born in Zimbabwe who are being disenfranchised after being declared aliens simply because their parents were not born in the country when, constitutionally, they are entitled to citizenship. In a constitutional dispensation that recognises dual citizenship, one can only wonder which particular people are considered aliens.
There are millions of Zimbabweans living out of the country who have been branded aliens simply because they took on foreign passports to be able to live and work in those countries where they sought refuge from the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Sadly, they too will not be accorded an opportunity to make their voices heard in 2018.
In fact, MPs, before whom he spoke, should have taken him to task over his sentiments which have no basis at law. It boggles the mind why Mudede is against dual citizenship. Zimbabweans must be allowed to make their individual choices on where they want to belong given the stagnation of the economy and bad governance in the country.
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Why should one renounce their foreign citizenship if they are to become a Zimbabwean citizen? There is a need for the nation to engage in a robust debate over who qualifies to be Zimbabwean.
