BULAWAYO Non-Zimbabwe citizens commonly known as aliens are lobbying for dual citizenship and the scrapping of the additional foreigners levy that they pay in schools.Giyani Moyo, a teacher, said most people of Malawian and Zambian descent were treated as second-class citizens in Zimbabwe, which ironically was their country of birth.
We demanded that aliens should enjoy equal rights and privileges as other citizens, he said referring to a meeting held by Habakkuk Trust in Bulawayo last week for non-citizens.
At the meeting the use of derogatory and discriminatory terms used in the countrys national documents, terms such as extra-territorial students for non-citizen students, and aliens which is used in the national identity cards referring to those not of Zimbabwean origin was questioned.
One Zambian-born woman argued that government should indicate one’s country of origin, instead of inscribing the word alien on their identity cards.
Why cant they indicate my country of origin instead of using the word alien or use acronyms such as NC or FC (Non-Citizen and Foreign Citizen respectively) instead of Alien, she said.
Participants also stressed the need for non-citizen children to be accorded equal educational opportunities with local students. They called for the scrapping of the additional foreigners levy that they pay in schools.
We also want our children to receive the same as those who have Zimbabwean citizenship, and it is unfair for us to be charged foreign levy in schools when we have lived in Zimbabwe for more than 30 years. If that number of years does not qualify one to be a citizen, then what does, asked Simon Mwale.
Hundreds of thousands of invisible and forgotten Zimbabweans inside the country, disenfranchised by the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2001, have been denied many rights, including the right to vote during elections.
Post published in: Politics