Zim Resumes Passport Processing
10/01/2011 10:55:00
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Harare, January 10, 2011 – The issuing of new passports by the Registrar
General’s office resumed Monday, more than a week after a mysterious fire
damaged the national passport processing data base at KG6 in Harare on New
Year’s Eve.
Multitutes of desperate Zimbabweans thronged the registrar general’s offices
at Makumbe building, the documentation processing complex in Harare on
Monday.
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede last week announced the process had been
set to resume on Monday saying that engineers rectified the problem that
started the fire.
Mudede’s office was in the past days only issuing temporary travelling
documents for emergency travel.
Prominent political analyst, John Makumbe said the mysterious halt in the
issuing of passports could have been deliberate and politically motivated.
This was on the heels of a recent refusal by the country to accept an offer
from South Africa of a passport processing machine capable of churning out
4000 documents per hour.
“There are elections this year. They don’t want these people resident in the
Diaspora to come to Zimbabwe and vote because they know the implications of
that for Zanu (PF). It is very clear. You do not have to be a rocket
scientist to know that it is the Zimbabwe government sabotaging the whole
process,” said the University of Zimbabwe political science professor.