Zimbabweans welcome passport offices in South Africa

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS living in South Africa have welcomed the Government’s move to set up e-passport and national identity card application and enrolment centres in the neighbouring country saying this will allow ease of acquiring the documents without having to travel back.

According to the Registrar Generals Office, the centres will be opened in Cape Town and Johannesburg before year end and renovations to consulate offices in the two cities will be completed soon.

Traditionally, Zimbabweans who need passports used to travel back to the country and apply for the documents and collect them before returning to South Africa, however, this is coming to an end as the offices are now being taken to the people. Chairman of the Zimbabwean Community in South Africa Mr Ngqabutho Mabhena said the move was welcome.

“We welcome the move by the Zimbabwean Government to allow access to passports in Johannesburg and Cape Town because previously people have been struggling. They were able to access application forms for the passports but to have them submitted at the passport offices in Zimbabwe was the challenge, if you are a Mabhena, a person with the same surname had to submit your papers and it was problematic. We are glad that people will now be able to get the passports from here,” he said.

Some Zimbabwean nationals who spoke to the Sunday News expressed optimism over the development saying they would now access documents much easier than before.

“All these years, we had to return home two months before your passport expires and apply for one and return to South Africa while it is being processed. Some were then forced to apply for emergency passport services which were too expensive for most of us. This is because we never had the luxury of staying for a month in Zimbabwe waiting for the passport due to work commitments. But I am glad now we can do it from where we are,” said Mrs Christine Mainato who resides in Johannesburg.

She said now, she was now able to even apply for e-passports for her children born in South Africa who did not have the travel documents.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail last week the Consul-General at Zimbabwe’s Embassy in Johannesburg Eria Phiri said renovation and repurposing of the building was now complete and work was going on well, while the consulate office was now ready and waiting the deployment of the information and communication technology infrastructure at the end of October 2023.

Other Zimbabweans said it was an opportunity for them to get the travel document as they had entered South Africa illegally.

“We came to South Africa years ago and to be honest some of us did not have passports. We only have our national IDs and we are glad now we can apply for passports from where we are, it is our hope that we will regularise our stay without being arrested for having entered the country illegally,” said a man who preferred anonymity.

The offices are expected to greatly improve the ability of Zimbabweans in South Africa to access civic documents once the deployment of the enhanced Zimbabwe Population Registry System (ZPRS) by the Government is complete.

Applicants who require civic documents are required to come in person to apply for the documents at the Civil Registry Department offices. The ZPRS will link Government offices in real-time, cutting bureaucracy and also revolutionising the department’s work.

The digital migration is likely to commence at the end of October 2023. More than 100 000 e-passports have been issued since the introduction of e-passports in January 2022. — @NyembeziMu.