SOUTH Africa-based Zimbabwean businessman Mutumwa Mawere had all the reasons to smile yesterday after the Constitutional Court (Concourt) ordered Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede to issue him with a national registration certificate.
CHARLES LAITON
In a landmark ruling delivered by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku backed by eight other Supreme Court judges, the court said Section 36(1) of the new Constitution recognised Mawere as Zimbabwean by birth.
The court added that denying him the right to obtain an identity document was in violation of his constitutional rights.
Mudede was interdicted from demanding that Mawere must first renounce his foreign-acquired citizenship before he can be issued with a national identity document.
Part of Justice Chidyausiku’s ruling said: “It is declared that the first respondent’s (Mudede) refusal or failure to issue the applicant with a national identity document upon application on May 27 2013 was unlawful and in contravention of Section 36(1) and applicant’s right to vote enshrined in Section 67(3) (a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”
