E-Passports Saga: Zimbabwean Government A Bunch Of Roving Bandits: Biti

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MDC Alliance vice president and former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has condemned the privatisation of passport production in the country.

On Monday the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage said the Government was working with a company called Garsu Pasaulis (GP) in the production of the electronic passport and on other vital civil registration documents.

The following day, the Government promulgated Statutory Instrument 273 of 2021 which gave passport holders until 31 December 2023 to swap their passports for a new electronic passport (e-passport).

In responding to the developments, Biti accused Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe of breaking the law through the promulgation of SI 273 of 2021. Biti posted on Twitter:

The privatisation of passport production is yet another chapter in a lengthy anthology of crony capitalism under Emmerson.

Passport data is a private security issue that can’t be outsourced. Further, what criterion has been used to select Tagwireyi as the producer of these passports?

Kuda Tagwirei’s greed is unprecedented so too is that of the person fronting him. He now controls fuel, forex, gold mines, platinum, the RBZ, Banks, pipelines, Road construction, command agriculture, NOCZIM & the Ministry of Finance. He controls Zimbabwe.

It’s unprecedented that a regime can decree that all passports will expire on a certain date. The processing of new passports will be a humongous multi-billion dollar business. It will also be a logistical nightmare. This regime has no boundary, no morality, no limitations, no shame.

SI 273 of 2021 is blatantly unconstitutional. Kazembe Kazembe has acted outside powers provided to him by the Citizens Act Cap 4:01.

That SI needs to be challenged in court. Enough of these roving bandits. Enough of a vacuous government driven by greed avarice & aggrandizement.

–Pindula News