Home affairs and cultural heritage minister Kazembe Kazembe today exposed corruption at the civil registry office after he joined people queuing to get identity documents at Makombe building in Harare.
According to Kazembe, an unidentified man approached him and offered assistance with jumping to the front of the queue for a fee.
Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe went undercover at the passport office in Harare today, and bumped into this guy who offered to make him jump the queue for U$30.#263Chat pic.twitter.com/eX3jg5KVV0
— 263Chat.com 🇿🇼 (@263Chat) April 29, 2021
“Today I visited the passport offices and some guy sold me a place in the queue and I paid $30 but he is now in the police holding cells,” said Kazembe.
Police have since confirmed arresting a man at Makombe building in connection with Kazembe incident.
“The ZRP confirms that the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage effected an arrest on Avito Newton (40) at Makombe Building, Harare for criminals activities on 29/04/21 at about 0645 hrs.
“The Minister overhead the suspect touting for persons who wanted to be assisted in obtaining passport application forms at a cost of US$ 30 before inviting the suspect to his motor vehicle, acting as if he wanted to be assisted.
“The suspect was handed over US$50 which he took and started to negotiate with the Honorable Minister on passport acquisition and was subsequently arrested,” the police said.
The passport backlog currently stands at 226 000 with Kazembe telling the parliamentary committee on home affairs that they have introduced a night shift to push daily production to around 4500 from the current 2000.
“Currently, we have a backlog of 225 747 (passports), dating back to March 2019. The backlog has been accumulating due to shortage of consumables which require foreign currency,” Kazembe said.
