Mugabe renders Zimbabweans stateless

PRETORIA - Thousands of Zimbabwean children who were born in South Africa might be rendered stateless if Robert Mugabe remains as president for the next six years.
 
The move follows recent warnings by Mugabe that Zimbabwean nationals who will be out of the country for more than five continuous years would become stateless.
 
An estimated five million Zimbabweans are living in South Africa while others are in Botswana, the United Kingdom, the USA and other European countries.
 
Since the Gukurahundi atrocities, which left over 20 000 Zimbabweans dead, many people from Matebeleland and Midlands moved into exile and more from the whole country have since followed the same route after the launch of the opposition MDC and the government crackdown that came hard on the heels of the launch of the vibrant party.

As a result more and more children are finding themselves stateless as their parents fail to access Zimbabwean documentation. In the United Kingdom for example, children born to foreign nationals can no longer get British papers by virtue of being born in the UK or to illegal immigrants.

The South Africa’s department of Home Affairs has in the past gave a cold shoulder to Zimbabwean nationals fleeing political persecution saying their claims were manifestly unfounded peace prevailed in the country regardless of the political and economic problems.
 
On the other hand the Zimbabwean consulate officials in Johannesburg are accused of denying Zimbabweans and their children born in South Africa national identity documents and birth certificates respectively.
 
Pregnant women who have crossed crocodile infested rivers to get to South Africa have failed to get access to hospitals due to lack of documentation, making innocent babies to be born without any identity.

The mothers say going back to Zimbabwe is not an option as they would put their lives at risk.
 
The Department of Home Affairs has in the past accused Zimbabwean women of giving birth in South Africa so they can benefit from the child support grants. These accusations have made foreign nationals to be stigmatized to an extent resulting in others giving birth in shacks which they rent. There are no health experts in the shacks hence children have been exposed to serious diseases such as the dreaded HIV/Aids virus.
 
 
Over 100 000 refugee children (those under the age of 18) are alleged to be living in South Africa with a big margin failing to go to school as they can acquire proper documentation demanded by these schools. In Johannesburg one refugee school (Izenzo Kunge Mazwi) has tried to address this challenge but of late the school has been facing financial quagmires threatening its closure.
 
Mugabe’s utterance only serves to increase the number of those already suffering the identity crisis and this will see a large boom to millions of people becoming even difficult to track in times of death and crimes.
 
Political rights activists Joshua Rusere and Oliver Kubikwa commented that this was one of Mugabe’s desperate attempts to keep poor Zimbabwe within the country as the continued exodus was causing a loud condemnation of Harare in the international limelight.
 
Since 2000, the Zimbabwe ’s Registrar-general’s office headed by Tobaiwa Mudede, has refused documentation to thousands of people born in Zimbabwe but with foreign parentage their citizenship alleging that they are aliens.
 
Most of the affected people are of Malawian and Mozambican descendent.  However, critics say the move to deny them citizenship is because they are viewed as MDC sympathizers.