Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – The Masvingo Registry Office is grappling with a fresh crisis, having run out of “Notice of Birth” forms, a crucial document for birth registration.
The development comes barely a month after TellZim News exposed how the district registry had run out of basic receipt books, bringing services to a near standstill.
The situation is reportedly affecting several registry offices across the province, creating a domino effect of documentation delays for citizens seeking essential services.
According to a source within the department who spoke to TellZim News, the district office has completely stopped issuing birth notices, specifically the BD1 forms which are essential for the initial stage of registering a birth.
These forms serve as the primary record that remains with the registry offices once the actual birth certificate is issued to the applicant.
“We are not issuing notice of birth at the moment as we have run out of BD1 forms. The challenge with these forms is that they are specially printed at Fidelity Printers, unlike other stationery where we can improvise during shortages,” said the source.
The source further said the Renco Mine registry office was yet to receive receipt books and was not issuing lost identity cards and the same situation could be affecting other offices across the province.
“Our Renco Mine branch is still operating without the receipt books that we ran out a few weeks ago. It’s a mess. The problem isn’t just here in Masvingo town, several other registry offices across the province are facing the same challenges,” said the source.
Efforts to get a comment from the Minister of Home Affairs Kazembe Kazembe were futile as his cell went unanswered.
However, the permanent secretary in the same ministry Ambassador Raphael Faranisi, confirmed the challenges to TellZim News, pinning the blame on a critical shortage of funds.
He revealed that the office’s struggles with receipt books and other stationery were part of a wider financial crunch that has now escalated to affect birth certificates.
“The stationery shortage is a common challenge now, remember the government issued a statute aimed at cutting down expenditure and that has affected us, But we have applied to the treasury for funding to make sure that our operations run as usual. We need to make sure that anyone who needs a birth certificate or ID gets it in time.”
The recurring paper shortages have turned the essential service into a source of frustration for locals, who now face unpredictable closures and delays for fundamental documents needed to access education, healthcare, and other government services across the province.
