PROMINENT pro-democracy campaigner Namatai Kwekweza has given the Registrar-General (RG) an ultimatum to replace her defaced national identity card after some overzealous officials at the Civil Registry Department arbitrarily and brazenly refused to do so, claiming that she was on a so-called Stop List, which prohibits her from possessing one.
Officials at the Civil Registry Department on 30 October 2024 refused to replace Kwekweza’s national identity card after telling her that she was on a so-called Stop List, which results from a security issue, investigations or a pending court case, because of a criminal matter, which stemmed from 2020 in a case in which they alleged that she was an accused person.
This prompted the pro-democracy campaigner to engage her lawyers Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who on 14 November 2024, wrote a letter of demand to Registrar-General Henry Machiri protesting against the refusal by officials at the Civil Registry Department to replace Kwekweza’s national identity card.
In the letter, Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya told Machiri that the refusal to replace Kwekweza’s national identity card is unlawful and violates her constitutional right to be issued with a national identity document, which is guaranteed under section 35(3)(c) of the Constitution.
Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya stressed that by virtue of Kwekweza being a Zimbabwean citizen, she is entitled to be issued with a national identity card and this right extends to every citizen and the enjoyment of this right is completely independent of the existence of any pending criminal charges against her.
The human rights lawyers stated that even convicted prisoners are entitled to be issued with national identity cards as long as they are Zimbabwean citizens.
Furthermore, Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya said the basis upon which Kwekweza was placed on the so-called “Stop List” has since been overtaken by events because the criminal charges of participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence preferred against her in 2020, had fallen by the wayside as she had been discharged and acquitted at the close of the prosecution case sometime in 2021.
The human rights lawyers demanded that Machiri should within 48 hours of receiving their letter allow Kwekweza to replace her national identity card.
Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya advised Machiri that his failure to comply with their demand would lead them to institute legal proceedings against him to obtain appropriate relief on behalf of Kwekweza and the costs of such unnecessary litigation will be borne by the RG personally as there is no legal basis whatsoever for his refusal to replace the pro-democracy campaigner’s national identity card.
ENDS
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
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