Former ‘aliens’ urged to register

Politics
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) yesterday said people who were previously categorised as aliens were now entitled to Zimbabwean citizenship

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) yesterday said people who were previously categorised as aliens were now entitled to Zimbabwean citizenship free of charge in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Report by Pamela Mhlanga

In a statement, ZEC stated if the person categorised as an alien was a holder of a national identity document, which reflected that they were aliens, they could apply to be issued with an ID that reflected they were Zimbabwean citizens instead.

“There are two categories of such persons and these are persons born in Zimbabwe who have a Zimbabwean parent and the other category is a person born in Zimbabwe of parents from a Sadc county,” the statement reads.

“In terms of Section 36 of the Constitution, a person is a citizen of Zimbabwe by birth if the person was born in Zimbabwe and when he or she was born, either their father or mother was a Zimbabwean citizen, or if any of that person’s grandparents was a Zimbabwean citizen by birth or registration.”

ZEC said to effect the change in status from alien to Zimbabwean citizen in the first category, the person should bring a national identity document reflecting “alien” and a full original Zimbabwean birth certificate to establish that he or she was born in Zimbabwe and one of their parents was Zimbabwean.

“Section 43(2) of the Constitution provides that every person who was born in Zimbabwe before the publication date of May 22 is a Zimbabwean by birth,” ZEC said.

“In order to effect this change in status from alien to citizenship, he or she must bring a national identity card if any, the full original Zimbabwean birth certificate and a proof of residence or affidavit.”