THE Government has extended the replacement of old passports for Zambians within and outside the country to December 31 this year, Home Affairs Minister, Lameck Mangani has said.
Mr Mangani said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday that all Zambian nationals from within and outside the country would be able to use their old passports until December 31.
He said the Government had taken note of the challenges in the issuance of the passports, particularly among nationals in Diaspora.
“This problem has also been brought to the attention of the republican president in the course of his international duties. The main problem has been the long process from the time an application is filed at a Zambian mission abroad to the time it actually reaches the passport office.
“Despite the long process, however, most forms are submitted with major errors making it virtually impossible for the passport office to issue passports accordingly,” he said.
The Government has, therefore, decided to further extend the issuance of the new passports but after the extension, the usage of the old ones will not be accepted.
Mr Mangani said his ministry, in conjunction with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, would undertake clinics in the most affected countries to address the issue expeditiously.
He named the missions to be considered as London, Washington, New York, Moscow, Beijing, Pretoria, Gaborone, Harare and Maputo.
The minister said later in an interview that the passport office was currently overwhelmed by the high turnout of applicants, hence the move to extend the period of accessing the documents.
Mr Mangani said the passport office had so far issued 110,000 new passports.
The original target figure was 450,000 old passports to be replaced but because of several new applicants, the number has been revised to one million.
“Although with inadequate staff, our office produces between 800 to 1,000 passports per day. We shall do everything possible to smoothen the operations of our passport offices,” he said.
[Times of Zambia]
Let them extend till further notice. Deadlines which cannot be for filed.
Just give me my daughter’s passport. I paid for it twice. Im tired of waiting. Nothing runs smoothly. This should have been studied before everything started. Anyway what do we expect when we are being led by a failure for a president.
Never start what you not finish, but harm has already been done just hurry and give us our passports. We did our part we paid and on time nomba mwa amba ukusabaila
these people are dull,didn’t we tell them it was impossible to make the whole country to change passports in just a few months.just phase out the old passports.
You can not force people to do what you want them to,people should get those new passports till the ones they are holding expires.
Ala mwandi nebo nkabomfya fye i ine i ya kale mpaka nkengile Dubai> Tukesa solva fye bwino. Pliz extend and refund.
Shortage of personnel is not an issue. We have paid to have those documents. We are just being treated like we do not matter. Please policy makers, do not blame the poor civil servants who are trying to implement a policy which was NOT well thought out. Those who came up with the previous silly time line should be identified and fired from the Government/Civil service. I bet they have been promoted. Get rid of the dead wood.
why not jst make it till the first one expaires.
Just let our old ones expire ala….
time has caught up with them make till 2011 ,coz u said that u have got all the instrument that was needed to do this job but not know that u are not yet read anyway thanks
Someone wanted some quick money and decided to hold the whole citizens at ‘ransom’ with false dealines. This only happens pa Zed. We have learnt our lesson. Once bitten, twice shy…..
These people have no foresight at all, what do they expect from such a poorly managed and informed scheme. This type of scheme should have at least taken 3 years instead of deadlines spread via word of mouth in less than a year.
I wonder what type of people are working in these offices. It has been six months since i applied for my passport but up to now it has not come out. Let them not relax since they have extended now otherwise we will have the same problem in future. Malawi is very near to Zambia to be experiencing this problem. Our permits are expiring but we cant extend because our passports are no longer valid. We even fear to meet immigration people. God please help us.
When are you going to computerized the National registration cards?, i wonder the type of leaders we have. Cars that are not important are computerized but peoples records not. Hon Shikapwasha can you consinder my point boss. i know you can do it. we are in the computer age but not the stone age.
Ba Mangani, In the last 9 months, the passports office has only issued 110,000 new passports so how do you expect them to issue another 890,000 in the next 3 months?
You should leave this process open so that people exchange their passports when the old one expires.
Why is logic so difficult in our country?
What purpoze do the deadlinez serve any way? Wouldn’t it be better to just let the excercize go on? Afte all one still haz to pay the “new feez” whether renewing or starting from zero, if am not mistaken.
Ba Mangani bakamba BOZA che. They issue about 120 passports on a good day so at that rate it will take exactly 20.31 YEARS to clear another 890,000. Why can’t any of these people use a calculator?
People in the Zambian government are very good at talking – telling mostly lies. When it comes to action they score zero. My family and I applied for the new passports in January and up to now we have not received a single one. And there is no explanation. If all the Zambian embassies and High Commissions are like the one in Pretoria then we are in trouble. There is need for a serious shake up.
Damn, i don’t even have a Zambian embassy or so called mission where I live… how the hell am I supposed to renew my passport by Dec 21? The amount of dumbness at the leadership level in this country is amazing!
This suckers but where are ours have even got tired of calling the embassy
but this government sure.. awe. i have no words, why does zambia have to be full of ignorant and dull leaders.why us?
In Zambia the government never sit down to consult, plan and think. They just dream, wake up in the morning and make an announcement. What is worrying is that they are ALL the same, DAFT!
Banani gong’a ine. As it happens, naine naba gong’a, I have two passports, the old one which has not yet expired and which the passport guys did not cancel because there was no need, and the new one that I got a few weeks ago.
But I cannot start to decribe the hussle I went through to acquire the new one. So, for the rest of this year, I will use the old passport. Right or wrong?
Simple maths will tel you the target is unattainable, processing 1,000 daily in a month they will do 22,000 [22 working days] we have 3 month till dec 31 thats 66,000 passports.[for arguments seek we can even take it to 100,000. The target is 1,000,000 so far 110,000 produced. by Dec 210,000 would have been produced [assuming civil servants dont go on strike] balance 790,000. #17 you r rite it will take 20yrs. Solution let the individual old passports run there full course. Only Pa Zed are simple things so, so complicated.
vaupuba ivo, i want my passport. i diverted funds meant for important things cuz of the fake alarm now u are tellling us till december after chewing our money. twakana!
Our gorvernment is full of people who donnot understand the people they lead;; they live beyond Zambia how can they solve the problems in Zambia,, when they are not part of the citizenery or are they just pretenders who cheat their bosses, what a shame this has contributed to the current problems we have in this nation noone is sincere
“will undertake clinics in the most affected areas…” There they go again! Stop it now! This is just an excuse to travel abroad and get paid per diems! It would have been much simpler to supply the missions abroad with the relevant infrastructure to issue passports. In this digital age why should it take three months to issue a document? Mediocrity, mediocrity mediocrity! In the 19th century Dr David Livingstone would write a letter to Mary in Scotland and I am sure would get a reply back sooner than it takes to issue a renewal of a Zambian passport!
#24 At a Glance
You have the exact solution. It would have been better to simply let the passport live out its life and at renewal provide a new format. You cannot just drop of a hat. Why do we appoint or vote for people who cannot think through things that are as easy as ABC?
they just want to raise money for campaigns.who doesnt know the gymmick behind the whole stupidity of issueing passports.the best they could have done was to let the old and new passports be used parallel and then be issued with a new one when the old one expires.why do they take so long to just process a passport……..a process that just involves data capturing,verification and print…why take months?please we need our passports urgently
This country is being run on Impulse and on emotions. Let these peolple use their heads for once. its either they let the passport expire or they increase the capacity? you dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out
This is all BS. Send us new passports that we have already paid for. Since march u can’t tell me u are still “processing” my application papers… crap …anyway this time next year I will be a US citi …
honestly after hurrying us in that way only to come back now and proclaim that the old passport is now admisable.bushe ntukane.ok naibwelamo but ba mangani muli puli.
Should just let the old passports expire. After all we paid to get the old ones also – which means in effect we will be paying twice.
Thats i hate my zambian passport, all i want is a British when i get married next year. Thanks
exrend it to 2012! that’s when my passport will xpire!
just let our passports expire, if ou really want a vote from me in 2011 please let my passport expire at the right time, whats reaally wrong with this governmnet
bwezani is my name sake but we really think defferent
Mwaba ukusabaila ba passport office……
#34, Mushota , congrats…..
Strange indeed. Was home 3 months ago on holiday . could not manage the passport in 3 weeks in lusaka, had to go to Ndola where i got a travel document to the Uk, anyway they didnt even bother to see it, but only those guys at lusaka had the problems. I left all papers in Ndola, but now ubwafya is this, NDOLA PASSPORT OFFICE HAS NO land phone. the guys there only have cell phones and they keep changing numbers so that no one gets intouch with them when there is a querry. I think the boss is called a Mr Chileshe, nikatumpa sana uyu.
Don’t worry yourselves too much, after all we’re just visitors on earth. In Heaven, where we shall spend eternity, we wont need a passport.
Passports and corruption,Why should they only manage to produce such a minimal fgure of passports in a day .
These chaps are full of shit, they should not even give a deadline because it actually takes over 8 months to get a passport when you apply. Some of my friends applied for passports though the Zambian embassy in Sweden on the 17 January 2009 till today they have not received there new passports. So why give people a deadline really when we all know that it cannot happen as it takes so long to get a passport . Its very disappointing and its better to let people apply for their new passports when the old ones expires.
Yaba! After hustling for 2 months and being forced to use a travel document, I really don’t know what to say…
#34-wish u the best.Ifwe whether british passport or not tuli ma zedian pantu pa zed still more ni zee
An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I discovered it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to discuss this topic here on your blog.