Chronicle Editor
Raymond Jaravaza, Saturday Chronicle Correspondent
MILLING around across the street, two shabbily dressed young men keep their eyes glued to the entrance of the Bulawayo Civil Registry offices like predators seeking prey as they tout for business.
It’s a few minutes before the offices open for business on a Friday morning and the two lads seem to know exactly the people in the long queue of passport applicants that are potential customers.
Saturday Chronicle has been briefed numerous times that corrupt syndicates – touts, money changers and even taxi drivers, are back at the passport office in Bulawayo to fleece people who want to apply for passports.
These syndicates are not new at the Bulawayo Civil Registry offices, they have been around since time immemorial, especially at the time when the passport office was struggling to meet demand for the essential travel document.
The situation has, however, changed since the introduction of the new e-passport by the Government in December 2021 as operations at the passport office in Bulawayo have been running smoothly.
The Government, under the Second Republic, has made the issuing of essential documents such as passports, national identity documents and birth certificates a priority. Old habits surely die hard and the corrupt syndicates are proof of that as they have resurfaced, disrupting the otherwise smooth operations at the local civil registry offices.
Saturday Chronicle spent about two hours at the passport offices observing how the touts operate.
Their modus operandi is to identify impatient passport applicants in the queue and offer them a spot at the front of the queue for “faster service once the gates are open at 8am.”
They wake up early in the morning and “place” their colleagues at different spots in the queue, spots which are later converted into money when an impatient applicant is willing to part with a fee of US$10.
Having spotted a potential customer, the two shabbily dressed young men spring into action and approach a smartly dressed gentleman who is two places away from this reporter at the rear end of the queue.
“The machine is not functioning properly so they will take just a few people today, just like they did yesterday, but I have a place at the front of the queue if you want it. It’s not too expensive brother, just US$10 and it’s yours. You will be one of the first people to be served if you take the place,” the gentleman is told.
“You look like you are from London my brother and you don’t want to spend the whole day in the queue, do you?” the smooth-talking young man continues.
It’s a well-rehearsed speech the young man has used to convince customers and in no time the gentleman is won over. Hook, line and sinker, an impatient passport applicant has been sold a dummy by an enterprising tout whose false story about a malfunctioning machine at the Bulawayo Civil Registry offices has earned him US$10 in a matter of seconds.
Although the passport office is offering an efficient service to the public, the syndicates made up of touts, taxi drivers and money changers, are milking gullible members of the public.
A passport official who requested not to be named said the Bulawayo office processes at least 200 applicants a day.
The excellent services offered at the passport office in Bulawayo are attracting a growing number of applicants, resulting in long queues. The application process can be finished in a short space of time provided all the required documents are available. The passport is issued after 14 days and the successful applicant is sent an SMS advising him or her to collect the passport.
“It’s a smooth process and we (passport office officials) don’t understand why people pay money just to jump the queue. There is no need for people to sleep in the queue or get here at 2am, just get here an hour or so before we open and you will be served,” the official said.
Those that are not served on a particular day are given first preference the following day, this publication was told. The operations of the corrupt syndicates are, however, limited outside the perimeter fence of the offices, where the wheeling and dealing is done with impunity.
At 8am, the gates are open and an official from the passport office issues out cards with numbers as the applicants move in to be served.
Bulawayo police spokesman Inspector Abednico Ncube bemoaned the growing number of cases of people that fall prey to conmen that offer to assist people access services at institutions such as the passport office.
“Police periodically carry out campaigns to educate members of the public to guard against losing their hard-earned money to conmen pretending to assist them access Government services. We receive numerous cases of people being swindled by these dubious middlemen and we discourage people from seeking services from individuals that are not employed by those offices.
“The passport office like any other Government department does not offer its services through middlemen, said Inspector Ncube.
The e-passport was launched by President Mnangagwa in 2021 and the Central Registry Department was directed to ensure members of the public get prompt services. The launch of the e-passport and the state-of-the-art passport enrolment centre, is in line with the Government’s vision for a modern and digitalised economy.
When he launched the e-passport, President Mnangagwa said the rolling out of the travel document dovetailed with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) objective of modernising the economy through the use of ICTs and digital technology. The e-passport is machine readable to eradicate counterfeits.
The Government is committed to ensuring that every citizen has easy access to vital civil registration and travel documents. -@RaymondJaravaza
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