The prevailing foreign currency shortages have hit the Registrar General’s Office hard. Over the past weeks we have heard reports of just how hard. There is a huge passport backlog because the government has no money to import the necessary ink and paper used in the making of passport.

It would appear however that things have taken a turn for the worst. The Registrar General says government has now stopped printing new passports.

According to Registrar General Clemence Masango this is all because of some sort of technical challenge implying that this has nothing to do with the prevailing ink and paper shortage that has been causing backlogs until now.

I released a notice statement on ZTV in the evening revealing that we have encountered a system malfunction, that is affecting us.

Engineers are working on it so I don’t have any time-frame, it is very difficult to say and I am not an engineer.

Clemence Masango speaking to Zimeye.net

There is really no way to tell when these “challenges” will be resolved. When asked about the exact nature of these challenges Mr Masango brushed off the question as being technical but never provided an answer.

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