Passport row goes to court
A HARARE woman, admitted at a university in India, has approached the High Court requesting Registrar General Clemence Masango to immediately renew her passport to enable her to travel to India to study for a Bachelor of Science Medical Lab Technology degree.
Germaine Petronella Tapuwa Mangoni also cited the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Cain Mathema as the second respondent.
In her urgent chamber application for a mandatory interdict Mangoni said the Registrar General’s conduct in failing to process an application for renewal of a passport for more than a year invites the intervention of the High Court.
“Having made the application for renewal of a passport a year ago on October 12, 2018 and having followed up on the application for renewal at the Registrar-General’s offices exhaustively, and being misled that the passport is being processed, I have exercised all available remedies,” read the papers.
“Despite a demand for details as to when my passport would be renewed, it became a fact that Registrar-General has no specific date or prescribed time within which an application for renewal of a passport is processed hence I am left only to rely on promises given by the officials.”
Mangoni is seeking an order compelling the Registrar-General to issue her with a new passport within 24 hours after being served the order or any shorter period.
“Applicant is a beneficiary of a provisional offer to study a Bachelor of Science Medical Lab Technology with the University of Maharishi Markandershwar,” read the application.
“Her acceptance of the said provisional admission offer can only be successful and lawful if she is legally entitled to stay in India and that is only possible if she has a valid passport for the period of study which runs from September 30, 2019 to December 2021.
“Prior to being admitted as a candidate for the Bachelor of Science Medical Lab Technology, applicant invested time and financial resources from 2017-2018 into a diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology with the same university.
“Applicant’s right to further education is therefore under serious threat and she fears cancellation of the provisional offer as a university candidate . . .”