THE non-completion of the new Makombe Building Complex, which houses passport and national registration offices, is posing a health threat due to overcrowding, Secretary for Home Affairs Melusi Matshiya and Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede told Parliament yesterday.
VENERANDA LANGA
Matshiya and Mudede made the remarks when they appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs chaired by Bubi MP Clifford Sibanda (Zanu PF).
Matshiya said $1 million was required to complete the construction of the building complex.
“The RG’s Office has a plan in terms of managing the crowds that come for passports, birth certificates or other documents, but they cannot fully implement those plans as they need a more spacious building,” Matshiya said.
“That complex has been under construction for almost 20 years and its building costs keep rising, but my assessment of the amount needed to do the finishing touches is only $1 million.”
Matshiya said speedy completion of the building was necessary as the incomplete building incurred maintenance costs.
He said his ministry was in the process of looking at different Acts to re-align them with the new Constitution, including domestication of protocols that government signed.
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“There is need for domestication of human trafficking regulations, money-laundering regulations and citizenship laws. At the moment the RG’s Office and Immigration are in the process of giving us input in terms of how we should proceed within that framework,” he said.
Mudede also admitted before the committee that some of his staff were involved in corrupt activities, but said once those were detected they were brought to book, fired or transferred to a place where there was less handling of money.
He said the department could never issue marriage certificates to gay couples as it was illegal, adding that of the 2 000 people claiming to be marriage officers in the country, about 1 000 of them were bogus.
“Our district offices have depleted staff from 306 to 206 due to manpower shortages because my department needs 2 349 staff, but they are less than that because of the freeze of posts. We are now processing over 2 000 passports per day as my staff works from seven o’clock in the morning till eight in the evening,” he said.
Mudede said with the new Constitution voter registration was now under the purview of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, adding he was suspicious of the interests of some non-governmental organisations which had offered to assist with mobile registration of voters.
