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Table 1. Human rights violations resulting from political violence in Zimbabwe
> means more than * victims were sometimes held by both Zanu PF and/or the 'war veterans', and later the State, hence there is some overlap Human rights vis-a-vis the amendments to the Citizenship Act and the right to vote Before and during the 2002 Presidential Elections a plethora of court cases were brought in the High Court and Supreme Court on the issue of voting rights. This all started with the Citizenship Amendment Act, number 12 of 2001, which stated that a Zimbabwean citizen with a foreign citizenship had to renounce the foreign citizenship, in accordance with the law of the foreign country of which s/he held citizenship, by 6 January 2002 or lose his/her citizenship of Zimbabwe. It was stated that people who did so were entitled to have permanent residence status stamped in their passports. The law was therefore very clear. However, the Registrar General’s office began interpreting the Act to the effect that all Zimbabwean citizens with a potential right to a foreign citizenship must renounce the foreign "entitlement" if they wished to remain Zimbabwean citizens. At this point it was alleged that the Registrar General’s office was removing affected people from the voters roll on the basis that they were no longer citizens of Zimbabwe. An application was brought before the High Court on these points in the case Morgan Tsvangirai –v- Registrar-General. The case also sought an extension of the deadline for a year because of the administrative problems faced by individuals attempting to renounce their various citizenships. A provisional order was granted by the High Court to the effect that the Registrar General could only remove people from the voters’ roll in accordance with the procedures set out in the Electoral Act and judgment was reserved on the other issues. On 27 February 2002 the Honourable Mr Justice Adam handed down judgment. The judgment extended the deadline for renunciation to 6 August 2002. The order also stated that Zimbabwean citizens by birth do not have to renounce a potential foreign citizenship unless they actually hold the said foreign citizenship. This was in line with the Honourable Mrs Justice Makarau’s order (below). The Registrar-General immediately appealed this judgment and Justice Adam’s order was suspended. Meanwhile, on 25 January 2002 judgment in the matter of Morgan Tsvangirai – Registrar-General of Elections and 1 Other, and Morgan Tsvangirai –v- Registrar-General of Births and Deaths and 10 Others HH 22-2002 was handed down by the Honourable Mrs Justice Makarau. Inter alia, she ordered that, "The Registrar-General shall restore to the voters’ roll of any constituency, all voters who, on or before January 18 2002 were on that roll or were eligible but were refused to be on that roll, who may have lost or renounced their citizenship of Zimbabwe, but who since 1985, have been regarded by a written law to be permanently resident in Zimbabwe." The Registrar-General immediately appealed this judgment. On 15 February 2002 the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe sat to consider the appeal in this case. On 28 February 2002 judgment was handed down. The majority of the Supreme Court (Chidyausiku CJ, Ziyambi, Malaba and Cheda JJA) overturned Makarau J’s decision. They held that citizens and permanent residents are separate and distinct categories. In terms of section 3(3) of Schedule 3 to the Constitution, those who have renounced their Zimbabwean citizenship in terms of the 2001 amendment are considered to have ceased to be Zimbabwean citizens and summarily lost their right to vote. Therefore they considered section 25 of the Electoral Act to be superfluous or non-applicable to their situation. In a judgment the Honourable Judge of Appeal Mr Justice Sandura held that citizenship by either birth or registration includes permanent residency and therefore persons in either of these categories are entitled to remain on the voters’ roll and vote both as citizens and as permanent residents, and when they renounce their citizenship, but remain permanent residents, they are entitled to vote in the capacity of permanent residents. After the election it appears that the Registrar General continues to apply the law to the effect that an individual with the right to a foreign citizenship who has not renounced this right has lost his Zimbabwean citizenship as people are being refused Zimbabwean passports and even birth certificates for their children on the grounds that they have not renounced their entitlement to foreign citizenship. While the decision by Justice Adam is on appeal it is important to note that the Registrar General subsequently conceded that those Zimbabwean citizens who do not hold a foreign citizenship do not lose their entitlement to vote simply because they did not renounce an entitlement to a foreign citizenship. The reasoning behind this concession can only have been that these people continue to be citizens. It is our opinion that the case law indicates that such action is incorrect and that a logical interpretation of the Citizenship Act as amended is that unless you actually hold a foreign citizenship you cannot lose your Zimbabwean citizenship. Those Zimbabweans who are citizens by registration but who do not hold a foreign citizenship also do not lose their Zimbabwean citizenship by failing to renounce their potential foreign citizenship. The logic of the judgment by the Honourable Justice Adam can be applied equally to those Zimbabweans who were born in a foreign country but have lost their foreign citizenship by operation of the law when they acquired Zimbabwean citizenship. NB: Please note that in our last issue, Human Rights Monthly Number 22, January 2002, the following errors were made-
" We also hope that those who killed others for short-term political reasons will examine their own morality Under our current law, they would face the death penalty if found guilty of intentional murder."
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