The Ridiculous Cost of a Zimbabwean Passport

From the 7th to the 10th of May staff from the Zimbabwean Embassy in Australia (Mr Moses Chikanyairo and Ms Pelagia Mbanda) were in Wellington to assist all Zimbabweans who wished to apply for a passport. For a number of people news of their visit was welcome as there is no Zimbabwean Embassy in New Zealand meaning that people have to travel to Australia or make alternative arrangements if they want to apply for a new passport. Having embassy staff in the country gave people the opportunity to pick-up a passport application form to fill out which they would then send to Zimbabwe and get friends or family to aide in processing the application. Before the arrival of the Embassy staff, information with passport application requirements and associated fees was distributed with the cost for a new passport being: passport forms – AU$30.00, passport fees – AU$190.00, verification of documents – AU$50.00 coming to a total of AU$270 - Click here for new passport application requirements and fee schedule from the Zimbabwe Embassy Australia.

People went along to where embassy staff were stationed ready to pay AU$30 to pick up an application form but were caught off guard when they were told the fee was AU$80. The embassy staff were only accepting bank drafts which after a conversion from the NZ dollar and associated bank fees came up to approximately NZ$120. That is an exorbitant price to pay for an application form. A New Zealand passport will cost you about NZ$150-$170 depending on where you are in the world, an Australian passport AU$200, a British passport £75 and a U.S. passport US$100. As you can see, if you were to compile a list with the cost of passports from various nations around the world, Zimbabwe passport fees are bound to be close to if not at the top.

It just doesn’t seem right that one has to pay just for an application form and then the processing fees. For people living in the diaspora, they may run into a few problems when trying to apply for a new passport due to some of the requirements. These include the need to supply a long birth certificate and national identity card. Depending on how long a person has been away from Zimbabwe they may not have this documentation. In the case of a national identity document, they are only issued in Zimbabwe where a personal appearance is required for photos and fingerprinting. This makes things a little more difficult for someone trying to apply for a passport and doesn’t have all the required documentation. In the end all the money that has to be paid and the hops you have to jump through for a passport if you live out of Zimbabwe end up being one big headache when in reality it should be a relatively simple process. It may work out to be a lot cheaper and easier to go through the official ‘unofficial’ channels for a new passport.

People applying for passports from Zimbabwe are not immune to high passport fees. The Registrar-General's Office is constantly increasing passport fees to match the economic climate with the last update being on the 14th of April - Click here for a list of fees for a Zimbabwe Passport as at 14 April 2008.

The government really needs to re-evaluate what they charge for and how much they charge for passport applications. In the end it may not be worth all the hassle of applying for a passport that takes you nowhere if you are eligible for citizenship in another country.

Independence and the An Yue Jiang

Beaten for hours with chains and fan belts
Originally uploaded by Sokwanele - Zimbabwe

It has been 24 days since the presidential elections and the official results are still to be released by ZEC. A lot has been going been going on in Zimbabwe since the 29th of March with one of them being the April 18th Independence Day celebrations. Just how independent Zimbabwe is, is something much left to be desired. I took a look at the dictionary definition of independence:

Independence - the quality or state of being independent, freedom from control or influence of another or others
freedom - the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints: autonomy, liberty - immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence

Freedom of speech is something that is basically unheard of in Zimbabwe and the government tries to keep a tight lid on what sort of information is distributed via the various media channels and the journalists who come into the country to report on the situation. Some people live in fear that they may be subjected to beatings, torture, jail sentences or even death for speaking up for what they believe in which in most cases is basic human rights. What kind of independence is that?

Zimbabweans are in a state of limbo as they await the very overdue results of the presidential elections. In the mean time, the streets of the nation’s cities and towns have been filling up with personnel from the armed forces and the odd Chinese military official has also been spotted. MDC activists and supporters have been subjected to violent beatings and this violence is something that may continue or even escalate especially with the large arms consignment destined for Zimbabwe from China.

A Chinese ship the An Yue Jiang which is carrying a large amount of weapons and ammunition destined from Zimbabwe was turned away from South Africa and Mozambique and is now destined for Angola from where its cargo can make its way to landlocked Zimbabwe. The United States is trying to intervene to convince governments of African nations to prevent the ship from unloading its cargo. There have been reports that a second shipment destined for Zimbabwe will be flown into the country, a step that may have been taken to circumvent the problems and controversy surrounding the first consignment. What all of this weaponry will be used for at a time like this is a question that a lot of people are asking?

Whatever the case may be, the people of Zimbabwe continue to suffer at the hands of a few people who could very easily put an end to it and allowing new leaders with the right mind set to take over. Are Zimbabweans going to have to go through the struggle of gaining independence all over again?

Are the 2008 Zimbabwe Presidential Elections Rigged?

Cartoon by Tom Scott of The Dominion Post featured in the April 2nd edition. (Click on image to enlarge.)

It has been five days since Zimbabweans took to polling stations and there has been no word as to who won the presidential elections. MDC has been claiming that they have won the elections stating that they have 50.3% and Mugabe 43.8% but there has been no official word from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. However, official results show that Mugabe has lost the majority in parliament which may mean the same thing for the presidential elections but people should not hold their breath because in the past, Mugabe has often done what he wants to do. The ZEC has said that they will release the results on Friday the 4th but that is not a given. Mr. Tsvangirai and a number of key figures from both MDC and Zanu PF have been seen in public talking about the elections but the man of the moment President Robert Mugabe had not been seen in public since the elections but he has resurfaced vowing to fight the good fight to hold on to presidency.

Here are some interesting things that some people have said through out the election period:

Teresa Makoni (MDC) – “It's straight plain rigging.”

George Charamba (spokesperson for President Robert Mugabe) – “The present delay owes more to thoroughness than to all those sinister motives you are imputing on our impeccable electoral system.”

Tendai Biti (MDC Secretary General) - "President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has won this election. He has won this election without a run-off."

Bright Matonga (Zanu-PF Spokesman) – “We are not going to see a Kenyan situation. Zimbabweans are very mature, there is no need to fight, as Zimbabweans we don’t have a problem. The problem is coming from the MDC handlers, the United Kingdom and the United States, they are so eager, they want to see the back of President Mugabe, they want Mugabe to go. I think this is an opportunity for Mr. Tsvangirai to give back land to the white man and that’s wish full thinking and that’s a dream that will never come true.”

Heidi Holland (Author of Dinner with Mugabe) – “Mugabe is a strategist of note. He has outwitted all his opponents to date. That doesn’t mean his day won’t come.”

Boniface Chidyausiku (Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the UN) - don’t write him off…..if one member fails to get 50% + 1 there is need for a run-off so I think if that comes up he will take the challenge.

Zimbabweans in New Zealand Poll Results

Below are the results of the mock elections organized by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign New Zealand where Tsvangirai won with an overwhelming majority of the votes. Given that there are about 7,000 Zimbabweans in New Zealand, turn out was poor with just under 200 votes made.

	Tsvangirai	%	Makoni	%	Taugana	%	Mugabe	%	TOTAL
CITY
Auckland	68	71.58%	27	28.42%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	95
Christchurch	20	71.43%	7	25.00%	1	3.57%	0	0.00%	28
Wellington	25	83.33%	5	16.67%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	30
TOTAL	113	73.86%	39	25.49%	1	0.65%	0	0.00%	153

In Zimbabwe, MDC is claiming victory in a number of constituencies based on early unofficial results with their Secretary General Tendai Biti stating that they have taken 66% of the votes in Harare and 88% in Mashonaland West with more results to be released that they hope are in their favour. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it would start announcing official results late Sunday but the final results are not expected for a few days. It is still a bit too early for MDC to be celebrating a victory because anything can happen.

Zimbabwe Has Voted

Yesterday Zimbabweans took to polling stations to take part in presidential elections with the main candidates being President Robert Mugabe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and independent runner Simba Makoni. Just how free and fair the elections were is something that had been put into question well before voting began. There are a number of issues that have been brought up to question the elections such as, the use of cardboard ballot boxes vs. translucent ones, the inclusion of deceased people on electoral rolls. allegations of vote rigging by Zanu PF with the help of an Israeli firm, people resettled by Mugabe being forced to vote for him or risk losing the land they were gifted, the fact that there are considerably more ballot papers than there are voters and the list goes on.

The online version of the government owned daily paper The Zimbabwe Herald paints a slightly different pro Zanu picture of the situation in Zimbabwe. The government took steps to make sure that they did not get the wrong (or should I say right) kinds of journalists covering the elections. Most western journalists who wished to cover the elections as well as local freelance journalists such as Hopewell Chin’ono were denied accreditation by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from covering the elections. I for one was looking forward to Hopewell’s coverage after watching his documentary on HIV/AIDS, Pain In My Heart.

This weekend all eyes will be on Zimbabwe and it will be very interesting to see how things turn out when the preliminary results are released on Monday. Whatever the case may be, my hopes are that Mugabe’s reign comes to an end. He has played a big part in the deterioration of the country’s economic, social and political standing and hasn’t taken notable steps to rectify the situation. As for the other candidates, I am not so sure about Tsvangirai as a president due to all of the disagreement and confusion shown within MDC. As for Simba Makoni, even though he was once a member of Mugabe’s regime he may just be the person to get Zimbabwe back on its feet and on to its long road to recovery.

On a further note to election related events, individuals here in New Zealand some of whom have close ties to MDC organised mock elections in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch which also to place on the 29th (click here for ONE News coverage). Zimbabwean citizens were invited to vote and do their bit to try and get rid of Mugabe. What this will aid in I do not know because it will not have an impact on events taking place where it really counts, Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Flag

I work with people from all over the world and the other day one of my colleagues starting asking people what the symbols and colors on the flags from their respective countries meant. It was very interesting in that some people went into a detailed history as to what they meant and others weren’t quite sure about what their flag meant. This got me to thinking that it is important to know what the colors of your flag mean to better understand where you are coming from. Flags are used to represent a country or nation and are a symbol of national identity. For some people, a flag stirs up a sense of pride as they think of what they or others before them went through and those that died during liberation struggles. The Zimbabwe flag tells its own story with the various colors and symbols that make up the flag.

Green Stripe – represents the Country's vegetation and land resources.
Yellow Stripe – represents the country's mineral wealth.
Red Stripe – represents the blood spilt during the liberation struggle.
Black Stripe – represents the black majority.
White Triangle – represents peace

The Bird – the bird is the national emblem of Zimbabwe which also features on the coat of arms and the currency. The Image was derived from carved soapstone birds found at the Great Zimbabwe ruins in the late nineteenth century. All the carvings were taken away from the country and all but one have been returned. Legend has it that peace will never return to Zimbabwe until all of the artifacts have been returned to their rightful place.

The Star – The red star which is located behind the Zimbabwe Bird represents the nation’s aspirations, internationalism and the ruling party's socialist credentials.

Luciano, Joe and Beyonce To Rescue Zim Tourism

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is on a mission to try and revive the once thriving tourism sector through their Perception Management Programme. The programme involves bringing opinion leaders and celebrities to the country who will then hopefully go on to share their experience of Zimbabwe with the world.

Late last year the ZTA invited Jamaican reggae star Luciano aka "The Messenger" to Zimbabwe where he performed hits such as 'One Away Ticket' at the Jacaranda Jazz Festival held at the City Sports Centre. During his visit he had a few inspirational words for the people of Zimbabwe and was full of praise towards the Government and President Robert Mugabe's efforts towards true independence. A few weeks ago American R&B sensation Joe Thomas commonly known as "Joe" who is well known for the hit song 'Good Girls' visited the Republic. He didn’t seem to have a lot to say and stayed quite neutral when it came to issues related to the government. He was reported to have been paid around US$50,000 for his visit.

Most people understand the concept that you have to spend money to make money but I don’t know if spending that amount of money on musicians will do a lot to revive tourism. Yes, there may be a lot of hype around the period of their arrival but that dies down after their departure and life in Zimbabwe goes on as per normal. The musicians go back to doing what they do in their everyday lives with their pockets a little fatter. What the ZTA wants is for these musicians to act as ambassadors for Zimbabwe but I don’t see that as being much help especially when one of them was reported to have said he had not really heard of Zimbabwe until he was invited to the country.

The amount of money that the ZTA has spent on bringing Luciano and Joe to Zimbabwe could have gone to much better use. There are a number of ways in which the government could have used the rare foreign currency to benefit the people of Zimbabwe. I am not an expert on marketing but I am sure there are a number of long term measures they can implement to try and revive tourism. The ZTA say they also have stars such as Beyonce Knowles lined up to perform in Zimbabwe. With her international acclaim it will cost a fair penny to have her perform. If she does perform will it be money well spent or just a waste?