Copac co-chairpersons for the two MDC formations, Edward Mkhosi and Douglas Mwonzora, said after several months of haggling over the dual citizenship matter, the committee finally agreed to refer the issue to Parliament, so that it could be dealt with, through an Act.Zanu-PF is opposed to dual citizenship.
“We failed to find common ground on the issue and transferred the responsibility to an act of parliament. Parliament will deal with it,” said Mkhosi, who represents the Welshman Ncube-led MDC.
Mwonzora, who represents the MDC-T added: “The non-inclusion of dual citizenship in the latest draft constitution is because of the prolonged debates on the issue. If there is need to prohibit it, then a law may be brought into parliament prohibiting it and the parliament of the time will deal with it.”Civic society organisations and the MDC formations have said that criminalising dual citizenship disadvantaged Zimbabweans based abroad, who were forced to leave at the height of the country’s economic and political upheavals.
Most exiled Zimbabweans have over the years been denied the right to participate in national elections in the country, having acquired citizenship in their countries of exile.
The Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI), an organisation dedicated to ending statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship in Africa, is lobbying African governments to adopt a treaty that eliminates loss of citizenship on the continent.
The current Constitution provides that an act of Parliament may provide for the prohibition of dual citizenship or the procedures for the renunciation of citizenship, as well as the circumstances in which persons qualify for or lose their citizenship by descent or registration.
