The Civil Registry Department is set to despatch teams to areas that were hit by floods to replace national identity cards (IDs) and birth certificates for victims of flooding who lost their civic documents.
Last month, 51 people lost their homes in Budiriro, Harare, after the Marimba River burst its banks following a heavy downpour while close to 2 000 houses were damaged by storms countrywide.
Speaking in an interview with State media, Registrar-General Henry Machiri said every citizen had the right to access civic documents. Said Machiri:
We have the floods that took place in Budiriro and Kuwadzana and we are aware that they lost property, and some also lost their documents.
We know that the people are being given alternative accommodation, and when they are in safe places the department is going to move in and issue replacement documents.
We have got people who were affected by Cyclone Idai in Chipinge and Chimanimani, and some in Bikita as well.
We had a mobile registration which specifically targeted those areas and not the whole country.
In 2022, we were in Chimanimani, Chipinge and Bikita to make sure that we gave our citizens the required documents.
We also added Tsholotsho, as they were also affected by the floods.
Machiri said the department will soon start issuing death certificates for those presumed dead after Cyclone Idai. He said:
There are issues of death certificates as well and according to the law, we don’t just issue a death certificate. A person is declared dead by the courts, by the judges.
Over the last two years, there have been visits to Mozambique by a team headed by the Minister of Provincial Affairs in Manicaland, which also includes stakeholders from the Ministry of Local Government, our own Minister of Home Affairs and others to investigate.
Several bodies as well as shallow graves were found there.
Machiri said the Civil Registry Department will commence issuing death certificates once the victims are declared dead by the courts.
In November 2023, Attorney-General Virginia Mabiza launched a class action suit at the Mutare High Court to declare 279 missing victims of Cyclone Idai dead.
The High Court is set to legally declare the missing people dead after no one opposed the class action suit.
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