Mat North residents in quandary over passports

PEOPLE seeking passports from Matabeleland North Province are facing difficulties in obtaining the travel document from the Bulawayo office because there is no office to cater for them.
This is despite the fact that there are numerous vacant offices at the Bulawayo passport office premises, which the Matabeleland North office could use.
The development has rendered Matabeleland North provincial registrar Mr Willard Sayenda and his team redundant due to lack of office space.
Long queues have since resurfaced at the Bulawayo passport office following the slashing of passport fees as scores of citizens from rural areas and some from South Africa and Botswana, throng the passport office on a daily basis to obtain the legal travel documents.
The Government last month reduced the price of a standard passport from US$140 to US$50 and at the same time scrapped fines for lost passports as a move to ensure accessibility of the documents by citizens.
Passport seekers from remote rural Matabeleland travel long distances and arrive late to get served and some of them have to spend days in Bulawayo where they face accommodation problems.
Last week war veterans from Matabeleland North and some members of the public stormed the Bulawayo passport office demanding to be addressed by the Bulawayo provincial registrar, a Mrs Peters, over the issue.
The passport seekers have since called for the urgent opening of an office for them as a stopgap measure to solve the problem and reduce the congestion at the Bulawayo office.
Members of the public who spoke to Chronicle yesterday on condition of anonymity demanded that a Matabeleland North passport office should be opened with immediate effect and threatened to disturb business at the Bulawayo office until the issue has been resolved.
"We want the Government to open Matabeleland North passport office as soon as possible or else the Bulawayo passport office should cease to operate and be closed as well," said a member of the public who was visibly angry.
One of the requirements for taking a passport is proof of residence, which makes it difficult for people who reside outside Bulawayo to obtain the document.
"As someone who lives outside Bulawayo it is very difficult to get a passport from the Bulawayo office because of this requirement," said a villager from Umguza District.
"Matabeleland is a province on its own and should be given its own office like other provinces so that we also get our service.
"If this is not done we are going to disturb the operations at the Bulawayo office until we are granted our constitutional right like other provinces."
Contacted for comment, Mr Sayenda refused to comment, saying all questions should be directed to the Registrar General.
"I cannot comment on that. You will need to put your questions in writing and send them to the Registrar General," he said.
No comment could be obtained from Mrs Peters as she was said to be in South Africa.
However, the Governor for Matabeleland North Province, Sithokozile Mathuthu, said the problem would not be solved until the province has its own office.
"I am aware of the problem but unless we have our own infrastructure we have nowhere else to open an office and the problem will not be solved," said Governor Mathuthu.
"The construction of our offices in Lupane is retarded by lack of funds and once we get them we will have our own office. We want to move away from Bulawayo and operate in our own capital because we have no space in Bulawayo and Bulawayo is not ours," she said.