Demand For Passports Surged During Festive Season
The Civil Registry Department says it has increased the production of passports, with Harare now producing about 1 300 passports per day from under 1 000.
In an interview with The Herald on Wednesday, Registrar-General Henry Machiri said there has been a sharp increase in the number of passport applications during the festive season.
He said that in order to meet demand, they are working on weekends and have extended working hours and also increased personnel servicing passport applicants. Said Machiri:
The situation is that people are still coming. Diasporans are still around, and we are working as we said, those extra hours and we are managing.
We cannot say the numbers have really dwindled. As long as they (Diasporans) are still around, numbers are still there.
But we expect that in the next two weeks, the numbers will be going down as some collect their passports, but we are managing.
