or she should be entitled to citizenship, although there may need to be an overriding power granted to the executive to refuse citizenship on specified grounds. Any such refusal should be open to challenge in the courts. Foreign spouses of Zimbabwean citizens: should be entitled to registration as citizens, perhaps after a reasonable qualifying period and provided that the State cannot show that the marriage is one of convenience. Under the present Constitution, foreigners who marry citizens can become citizens after five years’ residence in Zimbabwe. Foundlings: Children who are found abandoned in Zimbabwe and whose parents cannot be identified should be accorded Zimbabwean citizenship by birth because, as mentioned above, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child requires our law to make provision for this. Dual or multiple citizenship: The new constitution should not deprive Zimbabwean citizens of their citizenship solely on the ground that they are citizens of foreign countries. There are too many people born and bred in this country who through no choice of their own are citizens of neighbouring countries, for us to be exclusive in our citizenship. Some of the unforeseen problems that arise when dual citizenship is abolished have been mentioned earlier, and these problems will increase in future because the children of Zimbabweans living abroad will acquire the citizenship of their countries of birth as well as Zimbabwean citizenship by descent. If we allow dual or multiple citizenship we shall be following the lead of some at least of our neighbours. South Africa has allowed multiple citizenship partially since 1995 and completely since 2004. Namibia allows dual or multiple citizenship for its citizens by birth. Zambia allows its citizens to hold foreign nationality until they reach the age of 22, when they must choose between their Zambian and their foreign citizenship. Under our new constitution, therefore, a citizen by birth (or descent) should never lose his or her citizenship, except possibly if he or she formally renounces it and only then if he or she is not left stateless. A person who becomes a citizen by registration should not have to renounce any previous citizenship held, though it would be fair to provide that if such a person subsequently becomes a citizen of yet another country, he or she should lose his or her Zimbabwean citizenship. ___________________________ 19