… Claims passport crisis over throughout the country yet Masvingo has none and registry
offices closed for failure to pay water bills
By Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe appears to
be either dangerously out of touch with reality or a pathological liar desperate to please his
principal, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, after he told the Zanu PF conference members that
Zimbabwe’s passport crisis is over yet Masvingo has no passport office at all.
To make matters worse, the Masvingo district registry offices were recently closed for failure to
pay water bills, but Kazembe Kazembe had the guts to lie with a straight face that there is no
more crisis at all relating to getting the identity documents throughout the country.
During the recent Zanu PF conference, Kazembe, who is also Mashonaland Central Provincial
Chairperson, declared to the President that citizens can now “drink tea while waiting for a
passport.”
“Now a person can drink tea while waiting for a passport, if you want the expensive one. In
Johannesburg, we have offices; in London we are waiting for the official opening; we are going
to Australia because locally we are done. Ask Min Garwe; you can get a passport in Murehwa.
You can now go to the fields and come back to get your passport. In Guruve, you can get a
passport; all over, you can get a passport. I have only talked about passports; you have fixed the
country,” said Kazembe Kazembe.
However, his claims are not factual; Masvingo Province has only one passport office in
Mwenezi, one of the remotest districts in the province, which makes access extremely difficult
for people in Bikita, Gutu, Zaka and Chiredzi, who in most cases opt to travel to Harare or
Zvishavane instead. The Mwenezi office serves very few people, mainly from the same District
and parts of Chivi.
Contacted by TellZim News over the matter, Kazembe admitted he was aware there was no
passport office in Masvingo, blaming the current offices for not being fit to house the provincial
registry.
“The reason why we do not have a passport office there is that there is no provincial office. We
need to construct new standard offices that will house the provincial registry office. We did one
in Mutare; Masvingo is next,” said Kazembe.
Asked about timelines, Kazembe said works would start next year and be completed within the
shortest time possible.
“We do not have a provincial office in Masvingo. The President said if you want to do
something, do it better, so we are going to construct a state-of-the-art office starting next year. It
won’t be just a passport office but the provincial registry which will be equipped for E-passport
among other services,” he said.
In a further display of how disconnected he is from reality, Kazembe insisted that Chiredzi
District had a passport office. When the reporter insisted there was none, Kazembe backtracked
and said he was going to check with the Registrar-General.
“There is no passport office in Chiredzi? I will find out from Mr Machiri (Registrar-General),”
he said.
Beyond the inconvenience of travelling to the Rutenga registry in Mwenezi, another crippling
challenge is that normal passports that should take a week to be processed sometimes take up to
three months, which is why many people opt to go to Zvishavane or Harare.
The minister’s false claim is not isolated; President Mnangagwa appears to be surrounded by
liars who feed him a false impression that all is well, when on the ground the reality is grim.
Officials at every level seem more interested in pleasing the President than telling him the truth,
and the result is a leader who is dangerously out of touch with the suffering of ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Whenever the President is scheduled to visit an area, frantic last-minute preparations begin,
roads are hastily patched, buildings are painted, streets are cleaned, and public spaces
