12 Jun 2017

Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu has urged Batswana to always register the birth of their children and deaths of their family members as the statistics was vital for development planning.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting recently, he said registration also gave identification of every person in the country hence making it easier for the government to know and manage the country.

He said every person must have identification, which in Botswana every infant acquired by getting a birth certificate, which upon reaching the age of 16 years they acquire an identity card (Omang).

“Every Motswana is identified by having Omang and without it one is ruled out to be a foreigner,” he added.

Mr Batshu said having Omang as identification allowed individuals to enjoy the benefits entitled to citizens.

However, he expressed disappointment over those people who gave false declaration to help foreigners acquire the national identity card.

He said such a tendency must stop because by so doing people were breaking the law and that could lead to serious consequences.

Furthermore, he urged residents to know the laws of identification as stepping out of the line might send them behind bars.

In addition, he urged residents to register the deaths of their family members within 30 days by returning their identity cards saying this helped the government in making decisions by determining the causes of deaths.

He said the census of the country depended on this to determine the growth and status of the economy and other related issues.

Responding to a concern by one village elder, Mr Gagonthesepe Monare who had wanted to know what happened to a child who had one parent as a citizen and the other a foreigner, Minister Batshu said it was important that parents knew that the law said that a child would enjoy all the opportunities and benefits accessible to every citizen until the age of 21 years where they had to choose their nationality.

He added that in most cases when the child passed that stage without changing to one nationality it always became a long process to change the situation fast making it hard for them to access opportunities.

Mr Batshu further discouraged couples that married early into relationships, especially to foreigners, adding that people must learn to take time to get to know each other as some foreigners married faster so that they could acquire citizenship and then divorce once they had achieved their goal. ENDS