Make passport application forms available online

EDITOR — It seems the Registrar General’s office has completely abandoned the ICT system that they were implementing. On October 12, 2012 the RG’s announced that Zimbabweans could now obtain passport forms from their website.

That is not the case today.

The application forms are no longer accessible on internet, meaning that we are reverting back to long unnecessary queues.

For one to renew their passport they now have to queue.

RG let us not revert to the old system, as that will frustrate Zimbabweans for no reason. Worldwide, important forms are available online and one only has to pay an application fee when applying.

I witnessed young and old Zimbabweans who had frustrated faces struggling to obtain application forms which could be easily made available online and request for a payment upon submission.

I cannot imagine our Zimbabwean businesspeople or politicians going through this process, it is not necessary. I am fully aware that you need to make money from the application forms by providing one with the form when they pay. Surely there is no difference between one paying an application fee when they have the form already and paying to obtain the application form.

Can you please explain why the only payment methods are swipe and cash, yet it is in the public domain that Zimbabwe is now 96 percent cashless and majority of our payments are mobile payments (Ecocash, One Money and Telecash), online platforms (pay now) and RTGS.

Why can’t your office allow these payment methods to cut down on unnecessary queues that are evidently creating corruption among the employees.

RG please make the passport application process as painless as possible through the use of ICT, which also increases the speed of processing. If you need any further clarification please do not hesitate to contact me on +263772278161.

Regards

Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi Chairman, ZICT, a division of the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers (ZIE)