ZIMBABWE has indefinitely stopped issuing birth certificates, identity cards and passports after an electric fault triggered a small fire at the Registrar General’s office which damaged equipment, officials said.
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede said no key infrastructure used in the making of the identity documents had been damaged, but electronic systems had been disrupted in the fire on New Year’s Eve.
A joint fire brigade and police investigation is underway to identify the cause of the fire, Mudede said.
The latest setback to hit the AG’s office means over 50,000 Zimbabweans living in South Africa who applied for new passports since September have to wait indefinitely, along with many other Zimbabweans seeking new passports or emergency travel documents.
South Africa, which received 253,000 work permit applications from resident Zimbabwean illegal immigrants between September and December 31, has promised not to deport Zimbabweans who can show proof they applied for passports with the intention of regularisiung their stay.
Mudede said on Monday: “We wish to inform members of the public that the department is currently unable to process computerised documents until further notice.”
The RG’s office is located in the relatively secure KVGI military base in Harare.
Mudede said production computers, 18 printers and 20 scanners used in the production of identity documents were not affected, but the fire had hit the electronics and made it impossible to access the central information database.
Mudede said the damage was “localised”, dismissing earlier media reports on the scale of the fire.
Ministers revealed last week that South Africa had offered Zimbabwe a printing press capable of producing 100,000 passports a day, but bureaucratic bungling had seen the country fail to take up the offer.
Mudede refused to comment on the claims by Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone.