Just give them their travelling documents

Zimbabwean bureaucrats have done a great job in terms of killing people’s spirits.
Most Zimbabweans have no hope for a better and brighter future, or even just managing to relax for the holidays.
On one hand there is a President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) who is preaching devolution under the National Development Strategy (NDS1), and on the other, Ministers that are announcing policies that are in complete contradiction.
The confusion has reached new heights.
For example, a week ago the acting Registrar-General Henry Machiri, announced that all emergency passports would now be issued in Harare.
His reasons were fear of litigation over failure to produce passports in time as a result of the long distance between the application point (provincial office) and the production point (Harare Central Registry office).
It is surprising that now he fears litigation when they have a backlog stretching two years – of passports that were applied under an agreement that they would be issued in three months.
A couple of days later the same Machiri appears at the officiation of Chitungwiza passport office, and announces it to be the first of many district offices to be opened in line with the NDS1.
He promises the devolution he has just denied people, forcing passport seekers to travel long distances and then wait for weeks for their chance to get a travelling document.
The inaccessibility of passports works to the advantage of some public service employees that benefit from the confusion, working with touts to collect bribes for a fast-tracked process.
It has, however, created a situation where, because of the hassle involved, some people opt for counterfeit travel documents.
Others, especially those travelling to and from South Africa, now opt for the 22 known porous points along the Limpopo to sneak in and out.
This is also to escape the very long processing hours at Beitbridge Border Post.
Beitbridge has been classified as the most corrupt border, as many officials, be they customs, and even police, frustrate the process to create commotion and confusion, just to reap people off in corrupt acts of “speeding up the process”.
People are risking their lives crossing the crocodile infested Limpopo on rafts; for what? A few dollars in someone’s pocket.
Why not just make the travelling documents accessible to all, as simple as when one is getting their birth certificate?
A smooth flow of travellers earns the nation more money as no one would be willing to risk their lives sneaking through illegal entry points. It takes commitment to devolution to make life easy for everyone.
People have lost hope in the system, people are broken in spirit, it is up to Government to rejuvenate the masses, earning great amounts in the process. Nhau/Indaba