Immigration giving Majongwe the run around over seized passport

By Tererai Karimakwenda
30 December 2005

Activist, poet and secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond Majongwe is still without a passport after state agents seized it from him at Harare Airport earlier this month. He has made one attempt to get it back and he told us on Friday that it was a fruitless mission that led him to decide not to try again. Majongwe said he visited the immigration office last week and was told to go get his passport from officials at Harare Airport. But these officials were not present when he arrived at the airport, and he was told to go back to immigration. This Majongwe refuses to do. He said he does not need the seized documents urgently and will not lose sleep over them.

Majongwe is considered a threat by the government having led several demonstrations and produced numerous protest music and poetry albums. He told reporters just after the incident that he was not intimidated by all this and was in fact inspired by the fact that the government regards him as an influential figure in the democratisation process. And he told us the passport is not his voice and he does not need it for survival. Majongwe also laughed at the whole affair, saying he will still be able to eat his sadza with the expensive meat now available and go to sleep with a clean conscience because he has not committed any crime.