The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa has streamlined passport application processes to minimize challenges around obtaining travel documents.
In a public notice on Friday, the Consul General to Johannesburg, Mrs Melody Chaurura said they had to act after receiving numerous complaints about the high rejection of applications.
She said the Zimbabweans seeking traveling documents had had challenges where most of the pictures they were sending were rejected for failing to meet the required standards.
According to the document the standard size of the (two) passport photography which is 3, 5 by 4, 5 cm, must be in colour, taken within a six months period, identical, white background, head straight, no shadows, eyes, and ears clearly visible, and printed on smooth quality non-glossy paper among other things.
With regards to infants, in addition to the above, no headgear is allowed and the child’s eyes and ears must be clearly visible.
The Consul General also dismissed the notion among many people to the effect that pictures were being rejected because the consulate preferred pictures from selected photographers.
“It has come to our attention that photos are being rejected for failure to meet minimum standards and we have received many complaints about this issue,” said Mrs Chaurura.
“We do not have preferred photographers, neither are we an affiliate of any photographer (s) and we have no interest in dictating where the photographs should be obtained.
“As a way of ensuring transparency and accountability in judgments relating to passport photos, we have introduced a passport Photo Rejection Clearance Form. This will help review each decision before finalization”.
The consul general said in cases where the applicants feel that their passport photo is ok, they will be made to sign a passport photo exoneration form, which will be attached with their application.
This, she said is done to absolve the consulate of any consequences that may arise from attaching a sub-standard photo.
In addition, to the exoneration form, the consul officer will proceed to endorse (on the application form) the undesirable features which they would have observed on the picture.
“Those with queries regarding the passport application process should continue contacting us via our online platforms and they should attach their signed rejection forms,” said Mrs Chaurura.
South Africa is home to many Zimbabweans though it is not known how many and the country has two consulate offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg respectively.
The main embassy is located in Pretoria.
The Johannesburg office was before the lockdown handling 750 to 1000 clients weekly, while those in Cape Town were attending to at least a third of that figure.
