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Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE Bulawayo Provincial Registry Department is set to beef up its staff in anticipation of a significant influx of clients that they expect during the festive holidays.
During school and festive holidays, the provincial registry offices says it witnesses an increase in clients from a daily average of about 200 to more than 800.
Last Thursday, the Central Registry Department took journalists on a tour of the facility where Provincial Registrar Mrs Jane Peters said they will be drawing staff from other stations within the province.
“We are beefing up our enrollment section (where e-passports are processed) so that once demand is higher, we have more people that are serving them. We will be taking from other sections. Here in Bulawayo we have our district registry and sub offices, as such where there is a need we pull out someone and we deploy here to beef up so that things remain normal,” said Mrs Peters.
She said the festive season usually witnesses a surge in the number of clients as most people out of the country return home and seek to process their documentation while some process for their children.
The department has, however, decentralised services with passports now being issued in Hwange and Lupane thereby decongesting Bulawayo provincial registry offices which previously serviced those areas.
“We no longer get so much congestion as a provincial office because we are now sharing the clients with others, like we have got Lupane and Hwange in Matabeleland North which means that part is taken care off. In Matabeleland South we have Gwanda and Beitbridge. As such for now we only talk of clearing our clients on time. Decentralisation has helped a lot,” said Mrs Peters.
She further discouraged clients from engaging touts which she says have no link with registry officials. She said they have since engaged the police to deal with the touts outside their premises as they did not have the power to do so as a department.
“As the person in charge of the province I have no power over what happens outside, there are law enforcement agents who are responsible for what happens outside. What we have done is that we have requested the Zimbabwe Republic Police through the Bulawayo Central Police Station to provide us with officers on a daily basis that are going to be dismissing those people from outside.
“We do not encourage our clients to talk to people outside or to seek services outside the yard. Where we can they are always chased away, so that they do not entertain our clients outside,” said Mrs Peters.
She further revealed that since the inception of the e-passport, the department no longer has backlogs.
“These days we do not have backlogs at all. We serve our clients and once they are out of the bio-enrollment side, they are told to wait for a message and after seven days they receive it inviting them to come and collect their document,” said Mrs Peters. — @nyeve14
Bongani Ndlovu