TOUTS operating outside the Bulawayo Passport Offices are allegedly cashing in on desperate travel document seekers as they claim to be working with registry officials to facilitate processing of passports.
If stories being told by the touts are true, then there
could be massive corruption playing out at the passport offices.
The Registrar General’s (RG) Office which was closed in
March, is now partially opened and is processing travelling documents mainly
for diaspora-based Zimbabweans who want to regularise their stay in
neighbouring countries.
Due to Covid-19 prevention measures, the passport office limits
the number of clients being served a day to about 30 to maintain social
distancing.
This is said to have created loopholes as some touts are
allegedly joining queues at the dead of the night so that they sell their spots
to travel document seekers at dawn for up to R200.
To get an appreciation of what is happening a Chronicle
news crew yesterday pretended to be among the desperate document seekers who
wanted to submit passport applications for diaspora-based relatives.
At about 9.30AM, the RG’s office-employed security guard
told travelling document seekers that they had taken in the maximum number of
people to be served on the day. There was, however, a hive of activity just
outside the registry gate despite the guard’s announcement.
Touts operating just by the gate bragged that they had
connections within the registry offices and they could assist individuals to
access required documents for a fee.
They mentioned names of employees at the RG’s office who
could assist in the processing of the documents for a “fee”.
One of the touts only identified as Zulu said it did not
matter if registry officials had reached their daily limit as the figure could
be increased once applicants paid money.
“At the moment they are only serving those who are submitting
documents for Zimbabweans based in the diaspora.
If you want us to facilitate that your papers get processed
even now, we can organise with our people inside so that they help you. But
that will cost you US$100 for the ZW$600 passport. It will just take a week and
the passport will be out. If you are serious, I will connect you with my
contact inside then you also buy me just a US$2 quart of beer because you can
wait for days without getting any assistance,” said Zulu.
However, Chronicle is aware that even after following due
processes, a passport for the diaspora-based citizen can be processed within
the same timeline.
Earlier this month, there were no long queues at the RG’s
offices as one of the journalists managed to submit an application without
challenges.
In the interactions with the touts, one could even be
forgiven to assume that some of them were directly employed by the RG’s Office.
They seem to be well informed with what is happening at the offices.
Although Chronicle could not confirm one of the tout’s
assertions, he seemed to know when the last batch of passports was released.
The country had a backlog of about 400 000 passports before
the lockdown which came into effect at the end of March.
“At the moment they are issuing passports that were applied
for in February last year. Although, the registry is not issuing passports for
locally-based people, we can organise it for you for US$210,” said the tout.
“These days it’s difficult to get inside here as they are
taking a limited number of people. You can even engage us to queue for you and
pay R200 or else join the queue around 3AM. Those that want us to queue for
them have to be here by 7AM so that there is no challenge.”
A travel document seeker, Mrs Tendai Chimombe said
authorities should investigate the ongoings at the passport office.
“I came here yesterday and found these touts telling the
same story that they can facilitate that I access travel documents. When you
talk to them you might think there is a mini- registry office by the gate as
they seem to know everything. To make matters worse, RG’s Office officials are
not that friendly and they seem to enjoy dismissing people. While I cannot
substantiate whether these touts can really assist one to acquire documents,
there is no smoke without fire. We cannot institutionalise corruption by paying
bribes to get services. There is definitely a need to investigate alleged
corruption at the passport office,” said Mrs Chimombe.
Bulawayo provincial registrar Mrs Jane Peters said the
touts have become a nuisance to the registry and dismissed assertions that they
were working with officials.
“The touts are not mine to comment about. They are outside
our gates and we have no control over their activities.
We have even reported them to the police. Those who want to
give them money can do so at their own peril. They might be knowing some of the
officials so they can even claim to be working with them even if it is not
true,” said Mrs Peters.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe
did not respond to questions. owever, last month Minister Kazembe told media in
Bulawayo that the registry office had managed to reduce the passport backlog.
“This Covid-19 pandemic caught us off guard, even Treasury
was affected but when we started operations, our officials took advantage of
this to work on clearing the passport backlog. We have since managed to print
more than 200 000 copies which is 50 percent of what was lagging behind,” said
Minister Kazembe.
“Further, people should be made aware that printing
passports is not just a process which is done overnight, I hear some people
saying that we must get the material locally but that is not possible because
passport printing is something that is controlled internationally hence we have
to import most of the printing material but our officials are working round the
clock to further reduce the backlog.” Chronicle
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