Registrar general suspends printing passports due to cash shortages

By Tererai Karimakwenda
23 January 2006

The Zimonline news site reports that the Zimbabwe government has temporarily stopped issuing new passports due to a shortage of forex needed to import special ink and paper. This shortage of foreign currency is affecting every aspect of Zimbabwean life but it is not just shortages that are destroying our long-established systems, mismanagement and corruption play a large part as well. The passport office was blessed with a donation of state of the art equipment from Israel some years ago. With this technology they should have been able to process a passport within 24 hours, but this never happened.
Zimonline quotes authoritative sources that said the Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede's department was only issuing emergency passports to senior government officials or to individuals who can prove they need emergency medical treatment abroad. Again the political chefs get priority while ordinary people suffer. Everyone else can only be issued emergency travel documents (ETDs) which allow them to visit specific destinations. This will mostly affect the informal cross-border traders who make a living buying cheaper priced goods from neighbouring countries for sale back in Zimbabwe. Some countries like Mozambique insist that Zimbabweans visiting or passing through have actual passports and not temporary ETDs.

An official in Mudede’s department is quoted as saying the printing of new passports would be suspended until the end of next month. It is not clear where the registrar general would then get the forex to resume printing. The problem could go on much longer than is expected. Zimbabweans know that even when the department had loads of ink and paper, applicants still had to queue all day and then wait with baited breath for results. Clearly cash shortages are not the only issue.
We were not able to reach the registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede for comment.