Harare – Despite being Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai still can’t officially travel outside the country.
And his aides have to make laborious special arrangements with foreign governments every time he visits them. The registrar-general’s office in Harare is reluctant to issue him with either a new passport or an emergency travel document, it has been established.
One reason given is that the office has run out of materials. But senior officials in the office have pointed out that hundreds of Zimbabweans have been issued with passports in the past few months.
At one stage Tsvangirai was offered a repatriation document by the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria, which is usually meant for dead people whose bodies have to be returned. “Tsvangirai refused … because he said he was not a dead person,” a Movement for Democratic Change official said.
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Tsvangirai first applied for a new passport in May after the pages in his old one had been exhausted. It normally takes two days for an emergency passport to be issued in Zimbabwe.
He was told on various occasions that there was no passport material; that the machines were down; and at one point he was accused of having imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and so did not deserve a passport.
The MDC leader, shuttling in and out of Zimbabwe while negotiating the power-sharing deal, was issued with two emergency travel documents with an unusually short lifespan.
The first allowed him to travel to Angola only for a Southern African Development Community meeting. It expired and he was issued with a new one for travel only to South Africa to attend the SADC summit. This expired after three weeks.
Normally, emergency travel documents in Zimbabwe have a lifespan of six months, and holders can travel to as many countries as they like, as long as they indicate their destinations on the application form.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, George Sibotshiwe, confirmed on Thursday that the MDC leader’s passport had still not been released almost four months down the line.
“We are disappointed by the lack of sincerity on the part of Zanu-PF and in particular their inability to deal with the passport issue of the prime minister-designate.
“We believe that (so much) progress has been made in this dialogue that issues like passports are simple and must be handled in a professional manner,” Sibotshiwe said.
The MDC took the matter to court, but the case was postponed each time.
Tsvangirai managed to travel in the region by making special arrangements with receiving countries. When Tsvangirai applied for a new passport, the registar-general demanded the old one, which has not been returned.
Registar-General Tobaiwa Mudede was said to be out of the office the whole week when The Star made inquiries.
A staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he believed there was a deliberate ploy to deny the MDC leader a passport.
“Everyone in the passport office took an interest when Tsvangirai’s application came through and workers wanted to process it quickly as he has a lot of sympathisers at the registar-general’s office.
“However, we were ordered by our superiors not to process his application. No reasons were given.
“Since Tsvangirai applied for a passport more than three months ago, we have issued hundreds if not thousands of new passports. So if the bosses here are saying there is no material, where did they get the material to process thousands of passports?” the official said.
Last month Tsvangirai was held up for a day just before the SADC summit in Sandton when his emergency travel document was seized by security officials at the airport. The document was later returned.
-iol
this is a strong warning to all that we want a zimbabwe which is fair anf just…polistic should not find its way on basic rights like issurances of a travel document or issurance of food to the hungry people… letrs improve on this – massage is to both mdc and zanu-pf….
Mudede should be the first civilservant to be fired as he hs been responsible for our misery through his vote rigging. Why should we have a permanent registrar in a country full of competent people, this guy has been in charge ever since we got independance WHY? Tsvangirai must be careful with this deal as it has too many areas which are not very clear.This is human rights abuse by Mudede mupei passport yake bloody idiots.
Prime Minister Tsvangirayi will have his passport don`t panic, we need our political leaders to work together our people have been reduced to scavengers within a space of 8 years thanks to the santions.
Our people have been reduced to scavengers and beggars within a space of 28 years thanks to the idiotic running of the country by the most useless government in the world ,namely zanu pf.They are afraid to give Morgan a passport because he will then prove to them how useless they are.zanu pf is full of idiots.
I’m a Zimbabwean white who has been battling for over a year to get a passport – at least I now know I’m in good company!!
tobaiwa mudede must be fired in the nu govt.
to hell with him.
why does he travel so much? i have all my pages intact but for 4.these are the sanctions morgan. there is no paper for passports…so called targeted sanctions.hondo inenharo
There are plenty of people in morgan’s shoes- thats democracy. he is like the rest of us. wait for your turn. I have been waiting for a landline for 3 years now. but i will wait. so morgan there is no fuss here- the sanctions are targeted as you can see.as they say -you learn from experience…those bank ques yesterday…sanctions? nooooooo-sanctions are targeted ? wake up.
why does he want a passport? stay home with the poor and help them. thats what primeministers do. mugabe can attend the foreign meetings as he is the president. lets work together.
Scarface should change name to scared-brain. A passport is a right for all who need it. I applied after Morgan and got it. Saka kunyima Morgan kureva kuti chii? Kupererwa kwaMatibili. It shows Matibili is desperate— energy in frustrating people. Hoyo Mbeki amukirwa nevakafa mu Zim
scarface, i think u also have a scar in yo brain as well.So u shld be called Scarbrain! lol
Scarface you right there no papers to print!!!!!!! sanctions sanctions Mr Tea Boy!
Its show how rude Zanu Pf is.I got a passport in 24 hours because i had to go for an interview in South Africa.Just because i claimed to the officer that am Grace brother and the interview was next tuesday.It was Thursday and Friday i had the passport in my hand.Good people should give Morgan a passport and he does what he know better than Zanu.(Remember Mudede is also from Buhera i think)
**** ramai vako scarface
gambi ramai vascarface
Only God knows why narrow minded idiots like Scarface hav access to the internet and spend time posting rotten garbage..
OUR PEOPLE IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY THINK THAT IT IS A BIRTH RIGHT TO ACT LIKE THEY OWN THOSE THEY ARE ENTRUSTED TO SERVE. THIS SHOULD STOP!!!!!!! WE WANT TO BUILD OUR ZIMBABWE, OUR AFRICA UPON SOUND PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND SERVANTHOOD LEADERSHIP. THIS ATTITUDE OF MISTREATING PEOPLE SIMPLY BEACUSE YOU CAN, IS A CANCER IN OUR SOCIETY
WE ALL NEED TO WORK HARD AND BUILD BUILD I SAY BUILD OUR ZIM.
DOWN WITH ANYONE WHO WANTS TO RULE THE PEOPLE WITH AN IRON FIST, AND CHEAT PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS AND RESOUCES. WEATHER MDC OR ZANU I DONT CARE, OPRESSION IS THE SAME ANIMAL WHATEVR FORM IT TAKES.
PAMBERI NE RUDO, PAMBERI NEBASA.
PASI NEMBWA, PASI NEVADZVANYIRIRI, PASI NE TSIMBE
PAMBERI NE ZIMBABWE!
so which passport was taken at the airport during the sadc meetin…come on . new zimbabwe siyanai ne zvi rumor
yes its true no paper to print money no paper to print the passports give him a video 4n to call germany and beg for more paper
dinga rinonzi scarface iri iduzvi chairo. Nadiva ndakanyarara but you are getting into my nerves manje
Just learn to shut up
Some men are just useless ndove ye dhongi
I tell you people -scarface tells it like it is.I have no time to **** about while my people suffer. Give morgan a passport and all we hear is bad news all the bloody time. One minute he is in kenya-next britain-botswana-south africa. Does he know anything about the enviroment? Why is he wasting so much paper? Now methods of communication have improved such that you dont have to physically be in the UK to have a discussion to talk to mr brown or Odinga.One minute morgan’s passport has been consficated at the airport-the next he does not have it-what are we to believe.Anyway i still have not recieved my passport and its been a year and a half.I go through the normal channels because i do not want to encourage corruption by paying someone for a speedy job.we should all stop that and respect the law -follow scarface’s example and morgan too. Just wait until its ready -unomhanyirepi?
Even i have things to do but like everyone else i must wait because the sanctions are biting.I thought they were supposed to be targeted-but i was wrong.Morgan is slowly beginnig to understand that this thing is b**** than a few gvt ministers involved in corruption.These are full blown effective sactions worse than during Rhodesia.Varoyi -zvitakata. Now Lord god above is answering my prayers and all their banks are being nationalised as i write.One by one they will suffer with God’s sanctions. He has imposed sanctions on the wicked west. Thank you Mbuya nehanda for your hard work up there.Rovai ma sanctions -imagine spending 700billion dollars to support banks and yet they claim capitalism is run by market forces-market forces my foot. why the intervention? let market forces operate tione zvinosvikepi?
These same fools will come to Africa with their ****ed up programs as if they have all the answers -we accept aid as long as we follow their mad policies-in the long run the whole thing falls apart and we still have to pay the interests rate above odds.They take all the money and **** off.Remember ESAP..i am not sure you have enough education to understand all that and how it messed up our once golden country. Had those policies been imposed by blacks -it would be a major talking point today. But well the whites can get away with it.You can see how we tend to talk about gukurahundi and not the Rhodesian war and nyadzonya etc. The whites can do no wrong. No one ever conteplated sending Ian smith to the hague. Why? No one ever talks about the invaders ruining our families lives and taking all the rich land-but the minute we reclaim our land its all hell breaks loose. **** dzenyu.
Now we have signed this deal-are they happy with that? Oh no no no..they want more. they still want to teach mugabe a lesson or two.Never mind we the povo are suffering. For the sake of one man they will have us all dead. Mugabe has signed a deal to work with morgan because he is a dynamic leader who knows when to negotiate and how to negotiate.He does not put all his eggs in one basket-he is willing to try new things and not for the first time. He did it in 1987 with Joshua Nkomo. How nice it was to have someone like nkomo who was interested in the progress of the country unlike some .
Its time Milliband and his crew accepted defeat to the africans. Mbeki out maneouvered them and got a deal signed against all the odds. They wanted a forced regime change and still do but they fell flat on their faces.With all that embarassment they still want us to suffer by refusing to remove the illegal sanctions.God will impose his sanctions on you.You will close all those bloody banks soon. MUCAHA**** CHETE.God has imposed targeted sanctions on some of your businesses. After that he will impose more devastating ones too. You wait and see as the Airlines and banks continue to crash-soon it will be retailers and tourism too.These are god’s sanctions on you evil bastards.
Let zimbabwe breath-if you do not want remove your sanctions then take all your ambasadors with you and live us alone.Morgan will soon get his diplomatic passport-we were just waiting for him to be sworn in as prime minister first. why waste paper ? God has imposed his own targeted sanctions on the west….hahahahahahahahah!!!
mugabe doesn’t have any eggs to put in the basket.
All the zeros are coming back.New $20 000 note just released.
Scarface. I see your mother has still not cleaned your mouth out.It is still full of crap.
This is why I have been saying Tsvangirai and MDC were duped into signing this sham of a deal. How do you expain why the PRIME MINISTER of a country having to queue for a passport? Why cant he just issue a request and get is officials to sort it out? This proves that he has no real power. He is a lame duck PM who will dance to the tune of Mugabe. He is now like a deer caught in the headlights of a car at night! He is bereft of what else to do. He has to wait until Gushungo returns from his sojourn to New York to start his duties. Who then has the reins of power here? ZANU will keep on putting obstacles in his way and make his work impossible. After the sanctions have been lifted and things start moving he will be pushed aside and blamed for eveything which goes wrong. This is not what the people voted for in March 2008.
MDC must not take the people of Zimbabwe for granted and act as if what they are doing is on their behalf because the patience is running thin. We will seek other alternatives to free Zimbabwe from this tyranny they have chosen to go to bed with. They have sold out, PERIOD. ZCTU and other civic organisations are right. This deal smells to high heaven. Tsvangirai, Biti et al beware of alienating the masses as you have only a short time to redeem yourselves. The struggle will continue with or without them until freedom comes!!
Mukaranga thank heavens at least you have seen the light-morgan has ****ed up so many times but you the supporters let him get away with murder. Why bother forming a new party when all you have to do is get rid of your useless leaders. it takes a while before a new party gets recognised and money is needed . But like i say -get rid of this useless leader. He has proved time and again that he is useless but you let him off the hook all the time.This mess we are in was his fault by failing to unite the two mdc parties in march. That was one big **** up.The rest is history-now we need to get the country up and running. In the meantime carry on praising him for all his courage and you will still get nowhere.Your choice now is get rid of him and prepare for the next election.He will be sucked by the invisible forces of zimbabwe once in gvt. that spells the end of the MDC.In five years time no one will remember anything. Morgan -once a fool always a fool..heeeeeeee i will never sign a bad deal.chinja maitiro morgan ..your supporters are mad because of your decisions but they are too scared to tell you. Democracy iyo!!!
This is funny -really funny. reading one article on zimbabwesituation.com i couldn’t help nut break down laughing. They tell us that the Reserve bank of zimbabwe should employ people who are highly educated ra ra ra rah. They compare Gono to Alan Green span etc. What nonsense i thought. Why then do you want us to have a president without a degree? They will run rings around him as he has no understanding of economic policies.Its funny how they have picked that post and neglect the presidencial role as crucial and needing someone with degree level education too.Remember he has the final say on most issues-how will he do that with just o levels.Gono is fairly educated with a good track record and understanding of macro economics..he has had to do his job under the most difficult of circumstances–sanctions and political interference etc.How many people in the world would have done a better job under those conditions.If you sit back and think you begin to realise the tasks he was faced with-no foreign currency-rampant inflation etc. He has had to work under those difficult conditions and to have gone this far shows that he has something in him.
If the rest of them are so good why are the money markets in turmoil right now- who runs those banks? it is not gono-these guys have run up debts of billions of pounds and will not accept they have failed.Yet they get paid huge bonuses that can service our national debt.In future dont let these fools advise us without first taking due dilligence to safeguard against their incompetence.We can formulate our own african policies that are consistent with our needs.No one should impose their own devised policies on us in the name of foreign aid.After whats been happening around the world -i welcome Mugabe’ vision of zimbabweans owning much of their wealth themselves.
Mbuya nehanda is angry -she has imposed sanctions on the west from the holy land. They will suffer and pay back for making her people suffer here in zimbabwe. Thank you ambuya.This time we want devastating sanctions ambuya.wacha**** chete.They do not own their own resources-soon Newcastle will be owned by Africans.hahahahahahahaha!!!! More power to the Africans.
Wanga uchisasa a bit of sense but Ambuya Nehanda wavaisa munyaya avo ndivo vanokukwadzai manje. Once waisa nyaya idzi in the spiritual it becomes a whole new ball game shamwari.
Thats why ini hangu (I dont know about you) ndichida kuti Ishe Komborera idzoke mufashion. Nekuti song imwe iya inotaura zve ‘ropa remagamba riti dziivirire kumhandu dzose’ inosimudza mweya yaka wanda wanda. Hauzo zvigona kana zvaaku uya!
Let it rain of peace in zimbabwe-how i miss my circle of friends who are now scattered around the globe. We used to be so close and so did our families. The togetherness we once had is now gone.Those weekends out in town in the warm wheather and the affordable taxis.The hussle and bussle of the streets of Harare-the city that never sleeps.The picnic weekends at the Matopo hills in Bulawayo. How i long for our country to get back to normal. Some friends we have lost forever as they will never return have become citizens of other countries-what a shame because i know from my previous life here that there is no place like zimbabwe if all is in order.Once our differences have been settled i hope to see my friends once again. It will be difficult to relive the glory days that we once had but we can begin a new era under different circumstances.
I have seen people uprooted from their new countries and having to find other places to reside around the globe for various reasons-may be their welcome there has come to an end.How i wish and pray that our country gets its act together so these people need not suffer anymore.Let them come back home and start again -we are a peaceful nation and rich in resources. there is no shortage of investors in zimbabwe its just the politics that needs to be sorted. I also wish for all the criticism of our country to cease as we need a positive approach towards a new zimbabwe. Lets be positive about what we say and the things we say. If we all dont contribute something then we shall be in this state of affairs for a long time.
Lets all show a positive attitude torwards the new deal that your represantatives signed on your behalf. Yes Zanu pf will have to work with puppets and puppets will have to work with zanoids-but that is the path we have chosen for now. Let it be known that this path is only temporary-our long term future will be decided after the next election under a new constitution.Lets work together to prepare the nation for that day in five or two years time.lets show the world what Zimbabweans can do and that we are a hard working nation -we have gone to these countries abroad and started businesses and done all sorts proving our entreprenurial capabilities.Lets now transfer that back home and build a resounding economy supported by all the technological adavnces we have made.I think technology and in particular the internet has a huge role to play in the new zimbabwe. The internet be it as a source of information or business platform will play a huge role in the new zimbabwe. Let it be known.
So guys hopefully this week our president will appoint the ministries -lets not spend another minute fussing about who got the best deal—its time to hit the ground runnig.Its time you as a individual have to decide what role you can play in the new zimbabwe. Will you work-run a business-teach-be a politician…decide what you need to do and go for it. how long will you have to wait before you make the decision to come back home? These are the crucial questions the diaspora community need to tackle quickly. Remember your hosts will soon make decisions like -is it safe to return these zimbabweans? If the answer is yes-then you may not have time to pack your stuff etc. Lets now start to think ahead of the politics.Forget the hatred and our differences-we are now working as a team for the next five years.
I hope to see some of my friends soon in zimbabwe-so we can relive those glory days again. good friend of mine has since made that bold decision to return and i praise him.At least i now have someone of my generation to liase with.Where are all my people ? Please come home and rebuild zimbabwe-you country needs you!!!!!!!! come back to the rainbow nation.
Scarface…….**** MHANI !!!! MWANA WE **** !!!!
The best thing we have is each other. If we unite, anything we aim for, we can acheive. So come on Zim Zim Zim lets do it.
Like JFK said “Ask what you can do for your country not what your country can do for you”
Jesus is Lord