24 Mar 2014

Parliament has been informed that as of December 2013, the total number of uncollected Omang cards was 56 679 and out of that number 92 were from Shoshong constituency.

Answering a question in Parliament from MP for Shoshong, Mr Phillip Makgalemele, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu said the number of Omang cards projected to expire in 2014 was 46 150 with 137 due to expire in the Shoshong constituency.

The minister said the National Registration Act Cap: 01:02 required that national registration be undertaken for all citizens of Botswana above the age of 16 and a national register be kept.

He said to date, the national register stood at 1 502 669, adding that he was unable to provide an accurate figure because compulsory national registration only commenced in 1988 and was introduced against limited implementation capacity amongst other factors.

Minister Batshu said the country was yet to achieve 100 per cent registration and to this day his ministry continues to discover people who have not registered for national registration.

He said previously no scientific research or study was conducted to determine the number of people who have reached the Omang age and have not applied for one due to various reasons including age categorisation.

The ministry, he said, has commenced a national comprehensive assessment of the civil registration system as well as national registration with a view to systematically establish the status of registration and identify bottlenecks that impede accessibility to registration services.

He said the other objective was to come up with a five-year strategic plan to address the identified challenges, adding that this was conducted in collaboration with development partners such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), African Development Bank and Statistics.

Minister Batshu said upon the completion of this study, he hopes his ministry would be in a position to establish the requested information.

“Such data will also inform evidence based decision making and national development planning among other uses,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Batshu told the House that there were a number of reasons that hinder people from obtaining Omang cards at the right age and these were amongst others, parents seem apathetic to register children upon attaining the compulsory age of registration, this has resulted in the attraction of penalty not affordable to some people, thus compounding the challenge of non-registration.

Other reasons cited included some people who fail to register as they reside in remote and difficult to reach areas, while some people are ignorant of the value of Omang.

In order to address the challenges, the minister said they have launched in September 2011, a Universal Registration campaign which include the implementation of a targeted information, education and communication strategy, including radio, TV as well as print media to sensitise the public on the value for national registration.

He said his ministry also continues to conduct mobile trips and field trips to deliver services on quarterly basis to ensure that services are taken to the people and that a special project for the registration of vulnerable groups for all the civil registration, and national registration functions has been established.

As part of the project, he added district registration assessment committees were formed for purposes of assessing the age of applicants, whose birth dates were unknown and the committees comprise of district commissioners as the chairperson, registration officers as secretariat, local headmen, social services, village development committees and representatives of the Ministry of Health.

MP Makgalemele had asked the minister to state the number of uncollected Omang cards as at end of December 2013 and those projected to expire nationally and in the Shoshong constituency in 2014.

He also wanted the minister to give the estimated number of people who have reached the Omang age but have not applied for one due to various reasons; providing age categorisation where possible as an annexure.

MP Makgalemele also asked the minister to state known reasons that hinders people from having Omang cards at the right age and measures in place to address the disturbing situation presented including affirmative action. Ends