Thanks to a partnership between the government and a private company these days it only takes a week for you to get your passport and the process is relatively painless too. There were fears and panic last week when some people started spreading fake news that the government had stopped issuing new passports and travel documents for some unknown nefarious reason. It turns out the civil registry department is facing technical issues that are affecting the issuing of travel documents. Naturally, they are working flat out to restore service.

The Civil Registry Department wishes to inform its valued clients and stakeholders that the Department is currently experiencing challenges in the issuance of vital civil registration and travel documents due to a technical fault.

Our technicians are working tirelessly to rectify the situation and members of the public are urged (to) remain calm and bear with us during this time.
The notice from the Civil Registry Department

The government has made strides when it comes to passport issuing

As already said things are different now when it comes to getting a passport in Zimbabwe. The government has really done a good job on this front. According to the latest data from the government, a total of 140 000 passports have now been issued since January this year. Also unlike the early days when people had to make the journey to Harare in order to apply for an e-passport most provincial centres now have an e-passport application office. The list of offices includes Bulawayo, Lupane, Chitungwiza, Murewa, Hwange, Beitbridge and Gweru.

The good news doesn’t just cover current passport applications. The Registry office says they as of August 2022 they have reduced the past backlog of 176 000 to a mere 80 000. They expect to have cleared the backlog by the end of September 2022. This is awesome news to people who applied for passports years ago during the price distortion days.

The Registrar’s office also recently embarked on a mobile registration exercise. According to them, they have issued 2 million documents ever since the exercise began. These documents include death certificates, birth certificates and national IDs. These documents are meant to encourage and help people register to vote in next’s year’s harmonised election.