By TellZim Reporter
Reopening of the Masvingo passport offices will be delayed for some time with the
government saying the existing offices are ‘too small’ to run an e-passport operations with a
new building to be constructed.
Responding to a question in Parliament by Masvingo Urban MP advocate Martin Mureri on
the reopening of the offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Amon
Murwira, said the current offices at the Masvingo Provincial Registry were too small to
accommodate the infrastructure required for the e-passport project.
“The Ministry through the Civil Registry Department plans to roll out the e-passport system to
the remaining two provinces (Bindura and Masvingo). However, installation of the e-passport
infrastructure requires adequate and suitable office space. The current offices at Masvingo
Provincial Registry are too small and cannot accommodate the e-passport,” said Prof
Murwira.
Prof Murwira said the Ministry had engaged its private partner, Garsu Pasaulis, to assist with
the construction of the required, new state-of-the-art building. .
“To address this, The Ministry has engaged its private partner Garsu Parsaulis to support the
construction of a new state of the art building similar to the provincial registry office recently
commissioned in Mutare. The roll out of the e-passport system to Masvingo Provincial Office
will therefore commence once the new building has been constructed. Engagements
regarding the construction of the provincial office are ongoing,” he said.
The e-passport was rolled out in January 2022 and has since been rolled out to various
provinces and Masvingo Province has only one in Mwenezi District in Masvingo which is not
convenient for the rest of the province.
The people in Masvingo have however been forced to travel to other provinces such as
Midlands and Harare to apply for passports after the closure of the passport offices in
Masvingo District.
The situation has resulted in increased costs for applicants who must travel long distances to
access the much desired service.
To date, the government has issued close to 1.8 million electronic passports since the
programme began in January 2022.
