CAPE TOWN Zimbabweans who applied for their countrys passports here might fail to submit their applications for SA permits following revelations that the Zimbabwean Consulate will not re-open its satellite office that was closed early this year.The office was closed with no notice and sources told The Zimbabwean that it would not be re-opened anytime soon, meaning applicants will have to travel to Johannesburg.
The embassy does not have money to re-open the Cape Town office, so people are best advised to travel to Johannesburg to collect them, said the source.
Ngqabutho Dube, South African Secretary of the MDC-N, who is also a member of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum which facilitates dialogue on the applications, was distressed at the news.
People who cannot afford to travel to Johannesburg will be left out of the process. Many other people made applications for other documents like IDs, whgich they need before they can apply. This a very big blow, he said.
Dube called on the Zimbabwean government to make it easier for its nationals by re-opening its satellite office soon enough to have applicants access their passports and submit them to the South African government.
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans who applied for their passports and are still to be called to collect can trace their applications on www.zimbabweconsulate.co.za
Zimbabwean Consular-general, Chris Mapanga could not be reached for comment, as his mobile phone was continuously off.
Thousands of Zimbabweans in Cape Town made late entries into the South African documentation process, as the embassy only set up the temporary office in October, over a month after the process began.
The satellite structure at Bellville was set up specifically to improve the Consulates efficiency during the documentation process, after the main office was shut down for unknown reasons in 2006, leaving vandals to help themselves to the property, while some homeless people, most of them Zimbabwean refugees, turned it into cheap shelter.
Mounting debt from unpaid rentals and maintenance for the structure, which lay derelict for the past four years, has raised fears that it could be taken over by the City of Cape Town, which last year began to renovate it. Zimbabwe already owes the City of Cape Town more than R200 000 in unpaid rates.
Post published in: News