The government has spoken on the possibility of not renewing expired passports with blank pages as the Home Affairs Minister put it across, they don’t need them if they don’t use them.
The govt also ruled out extending the passport expiration deadline and also extending expired passports with blank pages as the government battle a backlog of over 370k+ passports.
This was revealed by Cain Mathema who spoke to Sunday News and said:
People who do not use their passports until they have expired are simply showing us that they do not need the passports. You cannot apply for a passport and not use it for years and it expires and you expect my office to grant you the permission to use an expired passport because it still has a lot of blank pages, it does not work. If a passport has expired that’s it, it does not matter how many blank pages it has, it will not work and that is the rule in countries all over the world. We cannot change the international laws because we have a challenge in Zimbabwe of passports.
Obtaining a passport has become an uphill task as the Registrar General’s office battle forex shortages which has led to a huge backlog of over 370 000 passports.
More: Sunday News
The don’t change international laws if it does not suit them. If it does, they gladly make amendments. When was the last time they obeyed international law?
Address the root cause simple. Every citizen has a constitutional right to have a travel document. Whether one is using it or not is a different issue. Imagine one using a passport once or twice every year. It’s clear that it will be having so many blank pages upon expiration. The question is can you deny that person a passport? Simply address the current challenges. 😛😛
What has he got to say about all the graduates and school leavers who do not have jobs?
The problem with Mathema is his usage of his bottom half for thinking instead of his brains.
It is my constitutional right to have a passport issued to me by the government. Whether I use it or not is none of their damn business! The problem is we have an unconstitutional government that feels they can trample on people’s rights pavadira. I beg you, for the love of what’s holy, deny me that passport muone kuti nesuwo titori ndururani.