By Irene Naidoo
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (NNN-SANEWS) -- Africa's most vulnerable people are unseen and unaccounted for because there is no record of their existence, says South African President Jacob Zuma.
Speaking at the 2nd Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Conference here Thursday, he expressed concern over the scandal on invisibility, a situation where people are born and die without ever leaving a trace in any legal record of their existence.
"It has meant that the most vulnerable people in Africa remain unseen and not counted. They practically do not exist," he pointed out.
It was important for the citizens of all of Africa's 54 countries to be registered, a feat which could only achieved through efficient civil and registration systems. Once everyone in Africa was registered and accounted for, the continent could plan better for its people and its development, President Zuma added.
"Central to the advancement of Africa's development is the social inclusion agenda, which we cannot successfully accomplish without proper and modern civil registration systems," he stressed, pointing out that civil registration and vital statistics were significant as part of the fulfillment of the dream of the African people to shape their mother land in their own way, following the defeat of colonialism.
The conference, being held in the Indian Ocean port city of Durban from Sept 3 to 7, is part of the exercise of Africa conducting its own affairs, as well as undoing the legacy of colonialism which deprived Africans of identity and citizenship.
"Africa cannot fulfill its development agenda unless we know, who we are, where we live, work and play and what we need to better our living conditions on the continent. Births, marriages, divorces or deaths are all vital events that must be recorded in any country," said President Zuma.
In the current age of globalisation and greater interdependence among countries, civil registration was much more than about just identifying a person's nationality. "It is also a pre-requisite for the successful implementation of African regional integration, as it facilitates the smooth movement of people among countries," he added.
"Furthermore, the benefits of good vital registration have a far reaching impact on broad developmental programmes such as the planning and monitoring of education, health, social security, unemployment."
This included countries' abilities to measure health inequalities, priorities, monitor trends, evaluate development programmes including, the Millennium Development Goals, poverty reduction and other developmental efforts.
Civil registration and vital statistics were also important in the implementation of policies for community planning, monitoring inequalities and future planning and resource allocation, he noted. "More importantly, civil registration is a critical tool for the promotion of democracy, in the event of the compilation of voters' rolls," he said.
Africans found themselves promoting civil registration in day and age due to the history of the continent and respective countries. "For example, South Africa, like other countries in Africa, comes from a history of colonial and apartheid regimes where most of the citizens were denied their right to citizenship. As a result, a largely fragmented and selective civil registration system was used to perpetuate the discrimination and marginalisation of the majority of the population," he said.
The colonial and apartheid regimes successfully used this system to deliberately and systematically prevent the African masses from exercising their right to vote and choose their own governments, President Zuma added.
Since 1994, the South African government has worked hard to ensure that citizens reclaimed their birth right and that their dignity was restored. The country had recorded many successes with regards to its civil registration system and campaigns, the president noted.
He assured delegates from the rest of the Africa, that Home Affairs (Interior) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who headed South Africa's civil registration campaign in recent years, would invest similar efforts into regional campaigns when she takes up office as the next African Union (AU) Commission chairperson.-- NNN-SANEWS
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