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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter 

BULAWAYO residents are today set to start testifying before the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) Commission of Inquiry into challenges faced in accessing national documents such as passports and birth certificates.

ZHRC commissioners will be in Bulawayo for the five-day hearings that will be held at Selbourne Hotel until Friday under the theme: “My identity, my right.”

In an interview yesterday, ZHRC chairperson Dr Elasto Mugwadi said the commission comes to Bulawayo aware of the unique challenges affecting Matabeleland region with regards to accessing national documentation.

He said the Gukurahundi issue is one of the major problems that has resulted in some people failing to access essential national documents.

“The issues are almost the same throughout other provinces except in Matabeleland and the Midlands where we have a unique problem. Gukurahundi caused problems where people have not been able, especially the young ones, to access birth certificates. (This is) because the Registrar General’s Office has been asking for production of death certificates which are not obtainable. You can’t get a death certificate unless you know where someone died, the circumstances surrounding their death and the burial place and all that,” said Dr Mugwadi.

He said another unique issue in Matabeleland region is a situation where parents leave the country for neighbouring South Africa and Botswana before getting birth certificates for their children. Dr Mugwadi said children end up failing to access national documents while in the custody of their grandparents.

He said ZHRC wants to immediately address some of the documentation problems hence some Government departments will be providing their services during the hearings.

 “We have had the advance team that has been sampling people with problems in accessing national documents. They have been selecting witnesses who are going to appear before the commission. We are saying even those who have not been sampled, we are going to be in Bulawayo from tomorrow until Friday and they can gate-crash. I’m sure we are going to be able to listen to their problems,” said Dr Mugwadi.

“This is because we want some of those issues addressed there, that’s why we are going to have officials from the Registrar General’s Office and the Department of Social Welfare as we have been doing in the other provinces.”

ZHRC has conducted other hearings in Matabeleland South, Matabeleland North, Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East.— @nqotshili