ROLAND WHITEHEAD

v

    REGISTRAR GENERAL OF CITIZENSHIP (2) CO-MINISTERS OF HOME AFFAIRS

(3) MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND LEGAL AFFAIRS (4) MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS

SUPREME COURT OF ZIMBABWE

ZIYAMBI JA, GARWE JA & GUVAVA JA,

HARARE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

L. Uriri, for the appellant

C. Mudenda, for the first respondent

No Appearance for the second - fourth respondents

GARWE JA

[1]        After hearing counsel and perusing the papers filed of record, the court made the following order:-

1.       The appeal is allowed with no order as to costs.

2.         It is hereby declared that the appellant is a citizen of Zimbabwean by birth in terms of section 36 of the current Constitution.

3.         Reasons for this order are to follow in due course”.

[2] What follows are the reasons for the order.

BACKGROUND

[3]        The appellant was born in this country, then known as Southern Rhodesia, on 15 April 1944.  His mother, Enid Marjorie Whitehead, was also born in this country on 11 April 1917.  His father, born in South Africa, migrated to the then Southern Rhodesia in 1939 and later married the appellant’s mother.  At the time when the appellant was born, both his parents were citizens of this country, his mother by birth and his father by naturalization.

[4]        In October 2005 the first respondent confiscated the appellant’s Zimbabwean passport on the basis that he had not renounced his entitlement to South African citizenship.  The appellant then applied for South African citizenship and was subsequently issued with a South African passport.  On 16 December 2005, he was declared an undesirable inhabitant or visitor to Zimbabwe by the Minister.

PROCEEDINGS IN HIGH COURT

[5]        On 25 March 2011, the appellant, as applicant, filed a court application with the High Court at Harare seeking a declarator that (a) he was a citizen by birth, (b) the order issued by the Minister was unlawful and consequently null and void, and (c) as a citizen by birth he was entitled to all the rights and privileges that are enjoyed by a citizen, including the right to a Zimbabwean passport.