Were Trevor Ncube’s parents Mozambican or Zambian?

A cable released by Wikileaks says Trevor Ncube, publisher of The Independent, was denied citizenship because his parents had been born in Mozambique.

Stories published at the time quoting court papers said Ncube’s father was born in Zambia so Zimbabwe was denying him citizenship because he was Zambian by descent. His mother was Zimbabwean.

Which is which?

Full cable:

Viewing cable 08HARARE180, Voter Registration: A Flawed Process

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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSB #0180/01 0661526

ZNR UUUUU ZZH

R 061526Z MAR 08

FM AMEMBASSY HARARE

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2550

RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1865

RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1800

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RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0504

RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1202

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RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE

RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1052

RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

UNCLAS HARARE 000180

SIPDIS

AF/S FOR S.HILL

ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU

ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B.PITTMAN

TREASURY FOR J.RALYEA AND T.RAND

STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN

COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC ZI

SUBJECT: Voter Registration: A Flawed Process

————

Introduction

————

¶1. Newspapers and NGOs have reported in the last several weeks

serious flaws in the Zimbabwean registration process which ended

February 13. Anecdotal evidence corroborates these reports.

Problems include absence of names of registered voters on voter

rolls, ghost voters appearing on the rolls, and refusal of election

officials to register qualified voters.

¶2. Although the Zimbabwe Election Commission extended voter

registration from February 7 to February 13 in order to accommodate

the many people who had not managed to register to vote, this

extension did not cure myriad problems existing in the registration

process. Embassy locally employed staff provided some anecdotes

that illustrate the problems.

——————————-

Confusion over documentation

and logistics for Registration

——————————-

¶3. POL assistant, with her husband, visited their polling station

in a low density suburb of Harare on February 4 to confirm that

their names were on the ward voters roll. The couple had voted in

previous elections, and therefore their names should have been on

the roll. This was not the case and they had to reregister.

Surprisingly, the names of the brothers of POL assistant’s husband,

who left the country in the 1990s, were both on the roll, although

they had never registered to vote before leaving the country. The

couple pointed this fact out to the ZEC officials and was told that

there was nothing that they could do to ensure that their relatives’

names were deleted from the roll.

¶4. Re-registering was not an easy task for POL assistant and her

husband. They were asked to prove citizenship by producing their

passports; election officials told them that their driver’s licenses

which have their national identity numbers were insufficient. One

of the officials admonished them not to complain; she had been

“shouted at” the whole day by white people who claimed their names

had been erroneously omitted from the roll since they had voted in

previous elections. POL assistant and her husband were not given

any receipts for registration and instead were asked to return three

days later to collect the receipts. POL assistant returned to the

polling center on Thursday February 7 to collect them, only to be

told that she and her husband needed to submit further proof of

residence. After providing additional documentation, they received

their receipts eight days after they had initially visited the

center.

—————————

Registering Turns into a

Wild Goose Chase for Many

—————————

¶5. Before POL assistant and her husband left the polling station,

another woman entered and complained that she had been sent to three

different centers after being told at each place that she was in the

wrong polling station. She told the officials that she was not

leaving until they had resolved the issue. Ultimately, officials

called one of the previous polling stations and told her to return

there.

———————————

Other Anecdotal Information from

Locally Employed Staff

———————————

¶6. An Embassy household staff member who was born in Zimbabwe and

had voted in the past was told he could not register to vote because

he was not a citizen. Election officials based this determination

on the fact that his parents were born in Mozambique. He was asked

to fill out an application for citizenship and told to go to the

Registrar General’s office to get his citizenship papers. Of the 7

other people in line to register, two others were also denied

registration because of foreign parentage. (Note: Last year, the

Registrar General denied citizenship to Trevor Ncube, publisher of

The Independent, because his parents had been born in Mozambique.

The Zimbabwean High Court subsequently ruled that since Ncube was

born in Zimbabwe, he was entitled to citizenship. End Note.)

——-

Comment

——-

¶6. Anecdotal evidence confirms the judgment of civil society

organizations and the MDC that the registration process was

seriously flawed. It appears clear that numerous individuals,

qualified to vote, were unable to register, particularly in urban

areas. In the absence of an audit, it is impossible to determine

how many ghost voters are listed on the voter rolls.

McGEE

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