Easing access to vital documents welcome

Obituaries
Reports that the government is finally acting to allow Zimbabweans to apply for essential personal documents such as national identity cards and passports from the comfort of their homes, provide the much-needed lift to the spirit. ICT and Courier Services minister Jenfan Muswere said on Friday that modalities were already being put in place and […]

Reports that the government is finally acting to allow Zimbabweans to apply for essential personal documents such as national identity cards and passports from the comfort of their homes, provide the much-needed lift to the spirit.

ICT and Courier Services minister Jenfan Muswere said on Friday that modalities were already being put in place and that it would not be long before the long queues that have become synonymous with the registrar-general’s (RG) office become a thing of the past.

Birth certificates, national identity cards and passports are supposed to be a birthright, but in Zimbabwe these documents are so difficult to get that human rights bodies have taken it up as an issue.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has instituted inquiries into the delay in the issuance of passports and national IDs following a public outcry.

We therefore welcome minister Muswere’s promise and pray that government makes good this undertaking to remove the agony that comes with procurement of these documents.

Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe recently made a mockery of the horror that citizens face by trying to convince the nation that queue jumpers were the cause of the chaos at the RG’s office. The backlash was swift and harsh.

The importance of these documents to people’s lives is so high their procurement needs not be the war that it resembles in Zimbabwe.

Besides the high demand for passports by the thousands seeking to leave the country for economic reasons, there are many others that are in need of medical attention outside the country and others that land opportunities to study abroad.

The move to get rid of the long queues at the RG’s office will therefore bring a lot of relief to citizens. And indeed, queuing up just to collect and submit an application form is no longer necessary in this digital age. Queues only serve to oil the wheels of corruption and making hundreds of otherwise redundant people occupying needless offices at the RG’s office appear essential.

The government needs to act with speed to digitise the RG’s office to make it accessible online. The process should also be made user friendly and available to everyone including rural dwellers.

It would be a good idea to make use of existing facilities such as post offices that are well decentralised and dotted around the country as collection points for the documents, to remove once and for all, the bottlenecks that are deliberately created at the RG’s office by corrupt officials.

The current million plus backlog for passports and other documents at the RG’s office is unhealthy and can be removed in a few months if government takes the issue seriously.

Getting a passport, a national ID, a birth certificate and a driver’s licence is the most dreaded task in the life of a Zimbabwean and removing this nightmare would be a huge stride that the Second Republic could sure count as a big achievement.