Government Stole Our Voting Rights: Killarney Squatters

SQUATTERS in Killarney fear being unable to vote in the upcoming elections because they have failed to acquire national identity cards required for registration as a result of the negligence of the Registrar’s Office personnel.

BULAWAYO: SQUATTERS in Killarney say most of them did not register to vote in the just ended Bio-metric Voter Registration exercise because they have failed to acquire national identity cards required for registration as a result of the negligence of the Registrar’s Office personnel.

File image: Killarney Squatter homes

Andrew Sibanda (50) claimed the Registrar’s Office workers were not responsive to people’s needs as they spend work time attending to personal business.

“I have gone countless times to the registrar’s office to apply for my national identity card but personnel at the Registrar’s office is not helpful. They spend the whole day on WhatsApp,” Sibanda who lost his birth certificate and identity card some time ago said.

Watch video by our Citizen Reporter in Killarney

Sibanda said he was told to go to the main [Registrar] office with his birth entry number so that Registrar officials could search for it and assist in his application for a birth certificate. But on his arrival, he and others were told to go to the shed where they waited for long hours without being attended to.

 “To my surprise, there are no offices or laptops that people can search their details from,” he said.

Some of the squatters have been referred to their birth places in rural areas so they could acquire their lost documents.

Florence Maphosa (50), another squatter said she had failed to travel to her rural are because of financial constraints.

 “I do not have the money to travel to my rural place and apply for a new ID because I am jobless. This has affected my children to acquire IDs since I do not have one myself.”