In Bindura 97% of respondents stated that the attitude and behaviour of officials in the RGs was despicable. It was said that they were rude and did not listen to people, often saying very harsh and uncaring words and comments to people who may have queued for hours or even days to get served. At Avlin Farm, a middle aged woman said “vanange vakazvarwa nemunhu mumwe” (they behave as if they were born by the same woman). In Hurungwe District 93% of adult respondents revealed that the attitude and behaviour of officials was, unfortunately, akin to that of “a beggar asking for alms” with them haplessly in the nonnegotiable and disadvantageous position. 89% of respondents in Bindura District stated that they actually feared RG officials who, it was alleged, could say whatever they felt like to them and there was nothing they could do about it. It was alleged that most officials in the decentralized offices did not show a humane face when dealing with the clients or the public, with some going so far as to shout demeaning words to clients. Respondents described what they went through at the RGs offices as nerve-racking, with unsociable and surly personnel, often coupled with contradictory and ambiguous registration procedures. RG’s officials in Bindura said these were very isolated incidents. An elderly man in Bindura told a story in which he traveled from Matepatepa to Bindura with relative and a 6-year old grandson he intended to register. His son had been customarily married. He (the grandson’s father) went to Mozambique, fell ill and died there. The grandson’s mother abandoned the boy and went back to her parents’ home in Makuni, Rushinga District where it was also said she too had passed way. The grandfather had neither the birth record nor his son’s death certificate. When the old man went to the RG’s offices in Bindura he was informed that he need another witness for him to register. When he tried to plead with the officials he said that he was shouted at and termed a lying old man. He said that the officials said to him “hamunyari kureva nhema murume mukuru” (An old man like you are not even shy to be telling such lies). The BDRA provides that when a grandparent or other relatives are registering the child in the absence of both parents, they must bring the birth record, the marriage certificate of the parents, relatives of both mother and father to swear affidavits that those are the parents of the child, death certificates, if the parents have died or if parents have disappeared, a court declaration that they are missing persons will have too be applied for. The court will only issue this if there is evidence of abduction or possible death; if there is no such evidence, the court will not issue a declaration until the parents have been missing for several years. 4.12 Requirements for Birth Registration 54 adult respondents (28%) in Bindura noted that people failed to get registered because of not having the requisite documentation such as birth notices as Birth Registration Research Report/2007 40