RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENS
Nature and Responsibilities of Citizenship.
Citizenship is a bundle of rights and duties reflecting the relationship between an individual and a State. The following are the main ones:
-Right to Protection from the State:
Citizens are entitled to protection from their State when they are within its borders and when they travel outside it. The State protects them by maintaining public order and ensuring that its laws are properly enforced. In a country like Zimbabwe where fundamental human rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, the State must ensure that those rights are respect ed.
When its citizens are in foreign countries, the State must do what it can to uphold their rights in t hose countries. The State’s duty to protect its people extends to non-citizens within its borders. The police, for example, have just as much a duty to investigate or prevent a crime committed against a Zambian or a South African as they have in regard to a crime committed against a Zimbabwean. The citizenship of the victim is immaterial. And the Constitution confers on citizens and non-citizens alike the fundamental rights to life, liberty, property and the protection of law.
-Right to vote:
Most modern States give their citizens the franchise, although not all citizens are allowed to vote: children and lunatics cannot do so, and some countries deprive long-term prisoners of t he right to vote.
Some countries impose residence qualifications on the right to vote so that citizens living outside the country usually cannot vote in elections. It should also be noted that while the right to vote in national elections is usually reserved to citizens, some countries allow non-citizens to vote in local authority elections. Zimbabwe used to, but does not now.
Duty of Allegiance or Loyalty to the State:
As a corollary to the State’s duty to protect its citizens, citizens owe a general duty of allegiance to their State. If citizens break their allegiance they may be guilty of treason or an equivalent statutory crime. This applies not only to citizens, however:
States often expect all residents to be loyal whether they are citizens or not. Hence in Zimbabwe treason can be committed by citizens and by non-citizens ordinarily resident in the country.
The Obligation to Perform Military Service when Required:
Arising out of their duty to be loyal to their State, citizens are expected to perform military service in defence of the State when called upon to do so. Again, this duty extends beyond citizens. In Zimbabwe, although in practice there is no national service in the form of military conscription, the National Service Act remains in force and it imposes obligations on all residents, whether citizens or not.
The Duty to Obey the Laws of the State:
Citizens have a duty to obey the laws of their State but once again this duty is imposed equally on citizens and non-citizens. There is probably no law in Zimbabwe, apart from laws relating to elections, that apply only to citizens.
The Duty to Pay Taxes:
Just as citizens and non-citizens must obey the laws of a State, so must the y pay taxes to the State, because tax laws are not imposed on the basis of citizenship. Liability to tax usually depends on the taxpayer’s residence or on the nature of the transaction that is being taxed . Sometimes, as in the case of VAT, even temporary visitors are taxed.
The Duty to Respect the National Flag and the National Anthem:
This duty is imposed on citizens by section 4(2)(b) of the Constitution. But non-citizens are expected to show similar respect. When the rights and obligations that constitute citizenship are analysed, therefore, it can be seen that there is little difference between citizens and non-citizens except in regard to voting in national elections — and even there, not all citizens are allowed the vote and in the past even non-citizens have been allowed to vote.
By Wilbert Masamba
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