By Staff Reporter
HUMAN rights activist, Namatai Kwekweza says she failed to replace her national Identification document (ID) at the Civil Registry Department following her inclusion on the government’s “Stop List” since 2020.
A Stop List are names of people deprived of particular rights, privileges, or services, or with whom members of an association are forbidden to do business.
Kwekweza was recently arrested alongside other two pro-democracy activists Robson Chere and Samuel Gwenzi.
The three were charged with disorderly conduct, granted bail early September and are currently awaiting trial.
In a statement on her X account, Kwekweza said she intended to replace her worn-out ID Thursday, when she discovered she was not permitted as the government had blacklisted her.
She had reportedly completed the ID replacement process at Market Square before learning of her restriction.
“Apparently I am blacklisted by the government so I cannot get an identification document.They called it a stop list!” she wrote.
“I almost believed this would be my best experience at a government documentation office; however, the colleagues at the registrar began to look at my papers weirdly and their screens.”
“A woman whom I was later told was the supervisor was called and she took my papers and asked me to follow her. She took me to a different office and already I felt anxious, I could tell something was wrong.
“At this different office, I was informed that I was on a ‘Stop List’ and I asked what it meant. She advised me it could result from a security issue, investigation, or pending court case,” Kwekweza wrote.
The activist was then directed to the Security and Investigations Department at Makombe Building, where authorities told her she needed a court order to be removed from the embargo.
Although she presented her High Court order, which did not mandate surrendering her ID or passport as a bail condition, registry officials maintained that the matter was beyond their control and insisted the courts had to authorise her removal from the list.
Again after her acquittal following the 2020 arrest, Kwekweza was ordered by the police to go back to the courts and get written confirmation that the matter was indeed over before they could provide her with an ID and passport.
“There was something fishy and unconstitutional about all this. Firstly, what kind of nonsense is a “Stop List”.
“Secondly, what law informs that? Thirdly, even if the courts had ordered the police to take my passport as a bail condition to ensure I was not a flight risk in 2020, did the same order say that I should be denied an ID card which is a constitutional right? Or maybe there are deeper systemic issues at play.
“Whatever the case might be, what happened is definitely unconstitutional and must be challenged,” Kwekweza added.
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