Zimbabwe's passport-issuing service has ground to a halt,
officials said on Monday, leaving many citizens trapped in the country as its
economic crisis worsens.
Applicants for new or renewed passports face an indefinite
wait as the government does not have the foreign currency to pay for special
imported paper, ink and other raw materials.
Officials at the Registrar General Office told AFP that
even if citizens want to pay for an urgent application for a passport, they
face a minimum wait of 18 months before they can even submit their papers.
"Last month, the urgent applicants were being told to
come back at the end of 2020," said one official who spoke to AFP on
condition of anonymity.
She added that non-urgent applicants were told that no date
was available for when they can apply.
Millions of Zimbabweans have fled abroad in the last 20
years seeking work as hyperinflation wiped out savings and the formal
employment sector collapsed.
Many others are now seeking to leave as conditions worsen
under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had promised an economic revival after
he succeeding long-ruling Robert Mugabe in 2017.
Official inflation is at nearly 100 percent -- the highest
since hyperinflation forced the government to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar in
2009 -- while supplies of essentials such as bread, medicine and petrol
regularly run short.
Power cuts often last 19 hours a day. Isheanesu Mpofu, a 23-year-old unemployed university
graduate, applied for a passport last November but is still waiting.
"I went back early June to check on it, and was told
to check again in August," Mpofu said, adding he wanted to visit his
family abroad.
"Besides, it is my right to have a passport so I can
travel whenever I want to," he said.
Mnangagwa addressed the problem last month, saying a
dispute with the printers over unpaid bills meant that a state-owned company
would take over the job.
"They said they will not print any more passports
because of legacy debts," he said, claiming the money had now been paid.
A passport office official told AFP that only ten passports
were being printed each day despite a reported backlog of 280,000.
"We have the capacity to clear the backlog in a very
short time but all the machinery is lying idle right now," she said.
Registrar General Clement Masango told AFP that he had no
comment to add to the president's remarks.
AFP
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