The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
Mr Admire Muchawa’s job requires him to travel abroad regularly, and he is now on his fourth passport.
The 58-year-old said, for the first time in a long while, renewing his travel document was a stroll in the park.
“Spending nights in passport queues and then trampling from one office to another in what seemed to be a never-ending process had become the norm. The Government should be commended for this initiative which has made life easier,” he said.
Mr Muchawa is one of the many people who applied for their passports recently and received the document within a week of applying. He describes the process as seamless and hassle-free.
Another applicant, Ms Miriam Tanhadza, said things have changed for the better since the launch of the e-passport system.
“I remember last time we wanted to renew our passports we had to go through unofficial means to get the green book. Things have changed and they have changed significantly. In less than an hour, all the processes are over,” she said.
Efficiency and a sense of urgency have become synonymous with officers at the Registrar-General’s Office.
The era of long queues and corruption in the issuance of vital civil registration documents is now a thing of the past.
The department has introduced a new work ethic which has resulted in visible improvements on all fronts. It now takes seven days to get the document, a marked difference from the old days when it would take months or even years.
Middlemen, con-artists and fraudsters who used to occupy pavements offering to “help” have been left in the cold.
Issuance of electronic passports began on January 18.
Typical day at the passport office
The Sunday Mail last week camped at the new complex along Herbert Chitepo Avenue in Harare to observe the processes applicants go through in applying for electronic passports.
The Registrar-General of Zimbabwe has not just introduced a new work ethic and a new electronic system, but has moved the passport office from temporary structures into decent purpose-built and spacious set of halls.
Despite the absence of signage to direct people where to go, security personnel direct people and listen to their queries. Queues move fast and there is no time for chit-chat.
Once the checklist for original documents is ticked, one is issued with a number and before thy know it, they are directed to a room on the first floor of the building.
While in this room, applicants pay the US$120 fee at CBZ booths before proceeding to the next section where they fill an application form.
The information is verified and biometrics are taken. Women are advised to keep it clean — for example, long nails make it difficult to take fingerprints, while nose rings, earrings and neck chains have to come off for a clear passport picture.
People wait for their turn in an orderly manner to be served. Senior citizens are given the privilege of not following the queue.
In a little less than an hour, all processes would have been completed. People are then advised to collect their passports after seven days.
Blitz to provide
national documents
As many continue to apply for e-passports, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said at least two million Zimbabweans without national identification documents (IDs), passports and birth certificates will be issued with the crucial civil documents during a three-month-long mobile registration drive that begins on April 1.
“We will give identity documents — be it birth certificates, national IDs and passports — to more than two million Zimbabweans across the country during the registration blitz,” he said.
e-passports, he added, will allow the merging of the civil registry, immigration and police, and work as a fully-fledged integration solution to fighting organised crime.
“Technology is the answer. You can easily pick up the system because your names are everywhere, including your biometrics,” he said during a press conference in Harare.
The e-passport was launched after the Government entered into a partnership with a Lithuanian company, Garsu Pasaulis, on a build-own-operate-and-transfer basis to produce new passports that meet international standards.
The partnership will also see the decentralisation of the system to all provinces.
Plans are underway to introduce an online passport application system that allows applications and payment for the documents online.
An electronic passport or e-passport contains an electronic chip.
The chip holds the same information that is printed on the passport’s data page: the holder’s name, date of birth and other biographic information.
An e-passport also contains a biometric identifier. All of these features are designed to protect citizens from identity theft.
The rolling out of the travel document dovetails with the National Development Strategy-1 objective of modernising the economy through the use of ICTs and digital technology.
