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Zimbabwe Documentation Program, a view from the Zimbabwe processing side
Zviko Mudimu
November 11, 2010

Please note that after my experience in the ZDP I felt it was necessary to relay the experience to Zimbabwe Home Affairs, the MDC, South African and Zimbabwean media, human rights organizations, friends and family. I hope my story brings some improvement in the situation for those still going through the machinations of the system.

If I ever wanted a reason to stay outside of my home country of Zimbabwe, all I need do is be part of the Zimbabwe Documentation Program in South Africa. It is great that both governments have agreed that such action was necessary to regularize the vast majority of Zimbabweans living on the wrong side of the Limpopo, however, the bureaucracy of the Zim officials in order to process new passports is unfathomable.

In order to request a passport, day 1 involved a trip to downtown Johannesburg, where chaos reigned supreme. One would like to believe that such official documentation would be done at the nation's official representatives, either the consulate or embassy, but no. Let me be generous and say that in probable anticipation of the volumes they selected an offsite location. That this was a random flat, and the back of a bakkie on Try-to-find-it street in downtown Jozi dsnt matter. Make your way there and there are 4 or 5 lines, criss crossing and no person in line quite confident of the purpose of the line.

The queue management is actually the least of your problems because on your first day you must make sure to bring your original birth certificate, original ID. Seems like a sensible thing to have but let us remember that the majority of people who are requesting to process this documentation are people who either have not been "home" in many years, people who no longer have valid passports to travel home, people who came here illegally and probably didn't come with such documentation or a combination of these. So somehow you must conjour the relevant paperwork and you are now in line... Get to the front and they will give you a plain Standard Bank deposit slip... That's all you get for your troubles for the day, a bank slip! You follow instructions and now must go to Standard Bank and deposit R750 and a bank stamp as proof of payment.

Let me say at this point this is one of the moments us citizens do not help ourselves and each other. If we were proactive we would simply give each other the bank details where said deposit must be made. The deposit we are given by the officials simply has the bank account number and a stamp stating Zimbabwe Embassy. I would question, nay I would dare to become rowdy with the official that wouldn't accept the deposit slip showing proof of payment, simply because it did not have his stamp. But that's forgetting this is bureaucracy.

Your next stop, after the bank business is done is to return to the outpost of the consulate to be advised when you can come and collect your application forms. Yes, as absurd as it sounds that's exactly what is done. Rather than give you the necessary application forms, you stand in line and are advised when you should come and collect them, and said date is a week in advance. You begrudgingly return and expect to wait again in line for your name to be called.

This of course now represents the third day of your sojourn, and if you are not yet having fun you arrive at the outpost to be told by an enthusiastic taxi driver that you need to get into his vehicle because the said outpost has now moved. Trusting the herd mentality, you ride happily laughing along the way about the nonsense, I mean what else can one expect we are to paraphrase Ian Smith "the happiest Africans around". What is most galling about the experience is that the most efficient process is the independent taxi driver who promptly drops us off at our destination with not a further question asked, and money duly pocketed.

I have lost myself, let me get back to the bureaucracy... We arrive now in Edenvale the new and improved outpost, it is better because it provides more space, has shelter and chairs once you get inside. I wonder why here in the middle of a light industrial area, obscure to ordinary zimbabweans, unless the thinking is that it is not obscure because many of us probably work here. Hmmm... The inconvenience is that people now have to take two taxis to get here, two taxis to get back home, on the three separate occasions. Thank you officialdom because now I have to make 12 journeys for my passport. Let's say each trip costs R5 in addition to the 750 rand, over R800 to get a new passport to be paid by the most vulnerable and group of people least capable of paying this.

As I write this I have received my paperwork, am waiting in queue to be fingerprinted, after which I will wait to have my picture glued to my application (yes this is actually an official step in the process), then I will wait for someone to sign the application then finally I will wait to submit my application.

The situation here is ludicrous and the painful thing is once again hardworking, helpless people are being subjected to this. Once again where do we turn, can we complain to our government, where Morgan and Robert are more concerned with gaining one over the other than helping their people (unless you come second in Big Brother). Do you complain to the SA government, we are not their citizens, so do they have much obligation to assist. Well and truly where do you turn? It is so sad because this is exactly how we as a people have been and why our country is in its current state.

We sit quietly waiting to be served, never demanding it, or demanding better consideration from those who represent us. We rather run away to far off lands, risking limb, and life than do better in our own land. However, when your land dishes this sort of treatment, the comforts of simply processing paperwork efficiently seems worth it.

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