Story by Memory Chamisa
THE Government has begun implementing the Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3, with the immediate focus on transferring responsibility for voter registration and management of the voters’ roll from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to the Registrar-General’s Office.
Responding to questions during Thursday’s Senate sitting, Leader of Government Business and Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi said authorities were now operationalising the new constitutional provisions through institutional realignment and administrative reforms.
He said the transition would be undertaken in collaboration with ZEC to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities.
“Before the adoption of the 2013 Constitution, the voters’ roll was managed by the Registrar-General, but the function was later transferred to the electoral management body owing to several legacy issues which Government has dealt with,” Minister Ziyambi said.
“The Government has addressed all issues that were there and that led to the function being taken to ZEC. We will be working with ZEC in the transition to ensure that everything is done accordingly.”
He said the Registrar-General’s Office had continued to play an important role in maintaining the national population database, which ZEC already relied on to verify voter information.
“In any way, ZEC was already using the Registrar’s database to clean up the voters’ roll because they know who is alive, dead and has reached the voting age,” he said.
“The immediate focus is now on administrative and electoral processes flowing from the amendment, rather than further legislative contests. This includes institutional transfers and alignment of processes after the election cycle was altered through the amendment.”
During the same Senate session, Minister Ziyambi also updated the House on the ongoing repatriation of Zimbabwean nationals from South Africa.
He said Government continued to facilitate the safe return of citizens while providing humanitarian support through the Beitbridge Reception Centre.
“The Government has gone all out to ensure its citizens in South Africa are safe, and those who want to come back home are welcome, and buses are still transporting them back home,” he said.
He added that the Beitbridge Reception Centre Clinic had provided healthcare services to 1,474 returnees, while Harare Metropolitan Province had received the highest number of returnees, followed by Manicaland, Midlands and Bulawayo provinces.
A total of 416 bus trips have been scheduled to transport returnees from the Beitbridge Reception Centre.
Minister Ziyambi said Government had adopted a three-pronged reintegration strategy centred on social, economic and cultural reintegration to support the sustainable resettlement of returning Zimbabweans into their communities.
