Mzembi raps Immigration Department

Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter has rapped the Department of Immigration for dithering around the resumption of a single visa regime with Zambia likening the department's conduct to sabotage.

Zambia stopped issuing the KAZA visa last year when the extended period of the memorandum of understanding signed with Zimbabwe for the six months pilot period phase expired in December last year.

The KAZA visa was launched in November 2014 for a six month pilot phase to March 2015, but was extended for a further six months to December 31, 2015.

Zimbabwe had however continued to issue the KAZA visas, but inexplicably stopped this year amid indications it had run out of visa stickers.

The World Bank had funded the initial 50 000 batches for each of the two countries' KAZA visas and German bank KFW was keen to finance the next phase.

Although Minister Mzembi wanted the visa to continue, Zimbabwe's immigration like its Zambia counterpart stopped issuing the KAZA visa in a development that enraged Minister Mzembi, as this negatively affected his vision.