The development
comes barely a month after TellZim News exposed how the district registry had
run out of basic receipt books, bringing services to a near standstill.
The situation
is reportedly affecting several registry offices across the province, creating
a domino effect of documentation delays for citizens seeking essential
services.
According to a
source within the department who spoke to TellZim News, the district office has
completely stopped issuing birth notices, specifically the BD1 forms which are
essential for the initial stage of registering a birth.
These forms
serve as the primary record that remains with the registry offices once the
actual birth certificate is issued to the applicant.
“We are not
issuing notice of birth at the moment as we have run out of BD1 forms. The
challenge with these forms is that they are specially printed at Fidelity
Printers, unlike other stationery where we can improvise during shortages,”
said the source.
The source
further said the Renco Mine registry office was yet to receive receipt books
and was not issuing lost identity cards and the same situation could be
affecting other offices across the province.
“Our Renco Mine
branch is still operating without the receipt books that we ran out a few weeks
ago. It’s a mess. The problem isn’t just here in Masvingo town, several other
registry offices across the province are facing the same challenges,” said the
source.
Efforts to get
a comment from the Minister of Home Affairs Kazembe Kazembe were futile as his
cell went unanswered.
However, the
permanent secretary in the same ministry Ambassador Raphael Faranisi, confirmed
the challenges to TellZim News, pinning the blame on a critical shortage of
funds.
He revealed that the office’s struggles with
receipt books and other stationery were part of a wider financial crunch that
has now escalated to affect birth certificates.
“The stationery
shortage is a common challenge now, remember the government issued a statute
aimed at cutting down expenditure and that has affected us, But we have applied
to the treasury for funding to make sure that our operations run as usual. We
need to make sure that anyone who needs a birth certificate or ID gets it in
time.”
The recurring
paper shortages have turned the essential service into a source of frustration
for locals, who now face unpredictable closures and delays for fundamental
documents needed to access education, healthcare, and other government services
across the province. TellZimNews
0 comments:
Post a Comment