21 September 2009

Harare — Zimbabweans with emergency travel documents purportedly issued in Bulawayo and Gweru have been barred from entering South Africa because of a flood of fake documents acquired in those two cities.

Zimbabwe asked the South African authorities to stop clearing travellers with ETDs obtained from the two cities while police investigate a major theft of these documents from Gweru Passport Office and follow up leads that many ended up in Bulawayo.

A number of travellers last Friday were left stranded after being turned away across the Limpopo despite having been cleared on the Zimbabwean side.

A South African senior immigration official said clearance of Zimbabweans with ETDs obtained from the two cities had been suspended.

"We have, with effect from Friday, stopped clearing Zimbabwean travellers with ETDs obtained from both Bulawayo and Gweru at the request of our Zimbabwean counterparts," she said.

"They said investigations were underway into a massive scam of people fraudulently issuing fake travel documents in those cities."

She said the suspension would be lifted as soon as the Zimbabwean Government was through with its investigations and had tabled before the South African government a credible way of issuing the documents.

Home Affairs Co-Minister Cde Kembo Mohadi said last Friday the suspension would remain in force until investigations were completed at the passport offices in the Midlands and Bulawayo provinces.

He said the arrangement came into effect following the disappearance of a substantial batch of ETD forms at the Gweru Passport Office.

Chances were high some of the forms had been taken to Bulawayo Province.

"A number of ETD books went missing in Midlands Province and currently we are conducting intensive investigations into the matter," he said.

"We also want to check on the missing books' serial numbers so that we issue a directive to all ports of exit across the country that these should be withdrawn from the holders."

Minister Mohadi said a substantial number of fake ETDs that were being produced in Gweru and Bulawayo were recently intercepted at Beitbridge and Plumtree border posts, hence the need to investigate the matter.

"In light of this, we have requested our counterparts to stop accepting such documents until investigations are conclusively done," said Cde Mohadi. He said some employees at the passport offices were among the prime suspects in the theft.

A Zimbabwe immigration officer at Beitbridge said officials were in the midst of collecting documents deemed fake and obtained through unscrupulous means.

They had also notified their South African counterparts to only let in those with ETDs authenticated by Zimbabwe immigration.

However, the South Africans are applying a blanket approach to all the travel documents from Gweru andBulawayo.

Travellers from the two cities, most of them cross-border traders who regularly go to South Africa to sell wares, had their hopes dashed as they were left counting their losses.

Mrs Sukholuhle Mpala of Mzilikazi in Bulawayo, who wanted to collect the body of her son who died in South Africa recently, could not hide her anguish.

"This is frustrating. Zimbabwe immigration should have notified us before we proceeded to this side of the border. I am disappointed as I was on my way to collect my son's body in Thohoyandou in Limpopo Province," she said.

South Africa scrapped stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans wishing to work or travel to that country in May this year. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of people travelling across the Limpopo.

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