Rural youths call for mobile registration centres in communities.BY TATENDA CHIKARA

Youths in the rural areas cry foul over travelling long distances to acquire identity cards, birth certificates, urging the registrar’s office to establish centers at local townships and schools, the Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) programs manager Zivanai Muzorodzi has said.
Muzorodzi said that it was proving to be difficult for youths to travel to and from the registrar’s office in rural areas as it was also a long process for these documents to be acquired.
“Youths in the rural areas are finding it hard to access identity documents such as birth certificates, identity cards. Identity cards are necessary because youths can use them to find jobs. Also youths are saying that to get death certificates of their relatives was hard since this process was tiresome,” Muzorodzi said.
He added that youths were also not managing to register to vote as voter registration centers were far, hence, they needed mobile centers where they can register to vote.
“In the rural areas centers to get registered to vote are far, youths are saying that there should be mobile registration centers when they can easily reach,” Added Muzorodzi.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) some weeks ago prematurely stopped the registration program amid ballooning covid 19 cases in the country.