The Sunday Mail
Belindah Mutayiwa
Mobile registration for national documents, including birth and death certificates for Cyclone Idai victims, is set to begin in Manicaland province this week.
Most of the cyclone victims in Chimanimani and Chipinge had their properties swept away by the floods and mudslides. The tropical cyclone is considered to be the biggest ever weather-related disaster to affect the Southern Hemisphere.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba told The Sunday Mail that the exercise is being ably supported by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has committed to fund the programme by assisting the survivors to get their national identity documents in time. Through mobile registration, we are going to make sure that everyone who lost their documents will be assisted,” said Minister Gwaradzimba.
She said mobile units will be placed in all affected districts.
Other aid providers have already been deployed and are providing assistance.
Government, however, insists that death certificates will only be issued to families whose relatives have been confirmed dead by the authorities.
“Death certificates will also be issued. However, this will not apply to missing people that have not yet been confirmed dead.
‘‘The Registrar-General’s Office is waiting for the decision to declare them missing and after that, they will register the deaths,” she said.
Government’s intervention is expected to return the lives of Idai survivors to normal.
National identity documents are critical for transacting and sitting for public examinations, among other things.
