30 Jul 2017

Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu has presented to Parliament for the second reading  a bill aiming to amend the National Registration  Act.

In his presentation of the bill, Minister Batshu highlighted that the National Registration Act was enacted in 1986, and that it was last amended in 1997.

Implementation of the act, he said, had been successful, evidenced by the ever improving quality of the National Identification Register which compared well with the periodic census statistics.

 Notwithstanding the positive input of the current act in the society, Mr Batshu said there were emerging issues which necessitated the amendment of the National Registration Act to close identified gaps.

He said the act currently only provided for the cancellation of a recovered lost ‘Omang’ card where a duplicate identity card had been issued, but does not provide for destruction of the same which resulted in possible re-use of such a card posing a security risk.

The proposed amendment, he said, would also provide for cancellation and the destruction of lost and found cards where a duplicate had been issued.

He noted that the current act also does not provide for the surrender of the deceased person’s identity card thus creating a security risk due to possible re-use of such a card. He noted that the amendment would insert a section to provide for the surrender of the deceased person’s identity card.

He cautioned against some service providers, particularly micro lenders for depriving those utilising their services possession of their identity cards by using the identity cards as security for servicing loans, saying the new amendments should be regarded unlawful for one to possess another’s identity card as security for debt or obligation to repay the debt.

Some of the proposed amendments, he said, would seek to specify that the photograph of the bearer should clearly show a person’s uncovered face and would empower the registrar to exempt any applicant who gives a reasonable excuse for failure to comply.

“The amendments will also give the registrar the power to refuse to register an applicant who fails to submit all the necessary required information,” he said.

Commenting on the amendments, MP for Palapye, Mr Moisiraela Goya said although he was in support of the amendments, he however wished to plead with the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs to consider including the bearer‘s contacts numbers on the identity card for easy recovery when the card is lost.   

He said the inclusion of the bearer’s contacts number would reduce government spending on replacing lost cards.

 Shoshong MP, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele raised concern towards the high numbers of Batswana without national identity cards particularly in rural areas. He urged nationality, immigration and gender affairs personnel to have community outreach programmes in rural areas.

Gaborone North  MP, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa opposed the amendment and suugested that it be postponed to allow more consultation with Batswana.   

He stated that it would be unfair to Batswana for Parliament to amend the act without any input from the community.ENDS