ROSELINE MUTARE
MASVINGO- The acting Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Professor Amon Murwira, told Parliament that the Masvingo Province registry office is to be relocated as the current premises are too small to accommodate a modern facility.
This was in response to a question from Masvingo Urban Constituency MP Advocate Martin Mureri who had asked the acting Minister of Home Affairs on the timeline for the reopening of the registry offices in Masvingo Province which was closed in 2022 as it was not compatible with e-passport project.
Prof Murwira told Parliament that the Civil Registry Department is in the process of establishing new offices in Mashonaland Central and Masvingo provinces which are the remaining areas without such facilities.
“The Ministry plans to roll out the e-passport system to the remaining two provinces. However, installation of the e-passport infrastructure requires adequate and suitable office space. The current offices at Masvingo Provincial Registry are too small and cannot accommodate the e-passport project.
“To address this, the Ministry has engaged its private partner, Garsu Pasaulis, to support with the construction of a new state of the art building, similar to the provincial registry commissioned in Mutare. The roll out of the passport system to Masvingo Provincial Office will therefore, commence once the new building has been constructed.
“Engagements regarding the construction of the provincial office are ongoing,” said Prof Murwira.
According to a source at the registry in Masvingo, the new state of the art offices will be built at the Printflow premises which are bigger and more spacious.
However, MP Mureri expressed concerns regarding the slow progress of the project during an interview with The Midweek Watch. “Despite repeated assurances, it appears there are funding constraints hindering the construction of the new e-passport office,” Mureri remarked.
Prof Murwira refrained from specifying a timeline for the office’s reopening, citing that discussions about the construction are still ongoing.
The source said the new offices will provide all civil registration services under one roof like the one in Mutare.
If completed the e-passport offices will be come the second in Masvingo after the one in Mwenezi.
“The civil registry department has no option as the current offices are made of wood and concrete blocks and dilapidated very small making it difficult to have e-passport facilities as they also require a bank which requires maximum security,” said the source who is not authorized to speak to the media.
The new facility will have back up power from a solar system in order to provide fast, efficient, and citizen centric service delivery.
The facility protects vital live records -permanent national data that must be treated with the utmost care and confidentiality.
This development is part of the Department’s broader decentralization strategy, ensuring that essential services are accessible across all 10 provinces, 63 districts, and 209 sub-offices in line with Vision 2030 and African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The facility will service the whole province as every individual should have legal identity including children to be able to access health, education, and travel documents.
The e-passport is machine readable to combat fraud and illegal migration which is very rampant in third world countries.
The e-passport also makes international travel seamless for citizens which is their rights.
“The new modern facility to be build where there is Printflow and ZPCS offices will be a one stop registry office that will offer births, deaths, national identity cards, citizenship, marriage and travel documents,” said the source.
Currently people from Masvingo Province who want to acquire the e-passport have to travel to Chipinge, Zvishavane, Gweru or Mwenezi since the changeover.
