... deadline extended to May 30An official at the Consulates offices in Beulah Park, Johannesburg, told The Zimbabwean late last week that the deadline, initially set for May 20, has since been extended to May 30, after the Zimbabwean embassy failed to process all passports applied for in time.
We hope that the extra 10 days will be enough for us to distribute the remaining passports, most of which have already been sorted and are now awaiting collection by the applicants, said the official.
We have already begun to send sms messages to the passport owners and some have already collected their documents. Almost all the passports applied for in time have now been processed and will be distributed before the end of this month.
Zimbabweans need to move with haste if they are to complete their applications for freely-processed South African permits, whose final date of receipt has been set for July 31, but to be able to do that, they need to produce their home countrys valid passports.
According to the South African government, those Zimbabweans who will remain undocumented after July 31 will be arrested and deported.
With the deadline fast approaching, some of the applicants sounded alarm bells to The Zimbabwean last week, as they thought they would not be able to get their passports, let alone meet the South African Home Affairs deadline.
Some of them accused President Robert Mugabes side of the inclusive government of trying to sabotage the process, which might allow most exiles to go home and vote. Mugabe and Zanu (PF) are trying to continue barring the Diaspora from voting, as they believe that most among the estimated four million outside the country support the MDC.
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