The Sunday News
Nontobeko Mlotshwa, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government is prioritising the issuing of polythene-synthetic Identity Cards (IDs) to high school learners while limiting to the general public due to shortage of consumables and unpaid licences and dongles that require foreign currency.
The move is set to ensure that the pupils can register for public examinations. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said the Civil Registry Department was limiting the number of applicants for polythene-synthetic IDs and priority was being given to high school learners who are set to register for Zimsec examinations and urgent cases which include elderly people.
“On the issue of national identification, my ministry faces challenges in issuing polyethylene synthetic identification.
“This is due to a shortage of consumables and unpaid licences and dongles that require foreign currency,” said Minister Kazembe.
He said due to the shortage of polyethylene synthetic, the ministry has relied on issuing Green Copy Waiting Passes to citizens waiting for the plastic IDs.
Minister Kazembe said the Ministry was also planning to conduct a national mobile registration exercise once all the logistics are in place in order to curb long queues in the registry offices which are against Covid-19 regulations.
“To address this situation, my ministry plans to conduct a national mobile registration exercise once all logistics are in place, this is to make sure that everyone gets a chance of applying for national identity card and in order to curb long queues mobile registration exercise will come in handy,” he said.
The minister also told members of Parliament that the ministry has implemented measures to cut the backlog on passports.
“Currently, we have a backlog of 225 747 dating back to March 2019. The backlog is accumulating due to a shortage of consumables that require foreign currency,” said Minister Kazembe.
He added that the ministry has implemented a double shift work programme that started on 26 April 2021 in order to deal with the backlog that passport offices have.
