Zimbabweans living in South Africa have expressed strong dismay over the passport fees for diasporans announced by the government, and have called for the fees to be lowered.

In a public notice issued on Friday, July 26th, Zimbabwe’s Consul General Eria Phiri announced the new passport application fees for Zimbabweans in South Africa. He said:

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage has directed that, all e- passport applications that are processed at the Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa shall be handled as express/ emergency applications in terms of Statutory Instrument 1 of 2024.

In effect, this means passport application fees for the express/ emergency passport shall be USD250.00 charged at the prevailing USD/ZAR exchange rate with effect from Monday 29 July 2024.

An ordinary passport that takes seven days to process costs US$150 in Zimbabwe, with an additional US$20 “application fee.”

Zimbabweans based in South Africa will pay the equivalent of US$250 plus the equivalent of US$20 “application fee.”

Debating the issue on “This Morning on Asakhe,” a CITE daily current affairs programme on X, participants said the fee was steep and appealed to the government to reduce it.

A participant, Ndlovu said:

This fee is exorbitant. I once applied for a passport while I was here and sent the forms back home. There are additional costs like R80 for pictures and R300 for forms, which makes the total amount very high… If only they could reduce it to at least US$170, it would be better.

The government should treat us better; we are struggling here. We appeal for a reduction in this fee.

Another participant, James, said:

We are very worried about this price. It’s too much. As someone who travels frequently, raising US$250 is going to be very difficult. In Rands, that amount is a lot.

I don’t know how they justify this amount. The government must help its citizens live better lives. People are not earning enough to afford this.

Alfred Khumalo said:

For someone to travel from Johannesburg to Harare to apply for a passport and back, it costs about R2,000 in total. This feels like manipulation.

Zimbabwe’s passport fees are the most expensive in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. An adult passport costs R600 (approximately $33) in South Africa, P260 ($19) in Botswana, and R400 ($23) in Namibia.

In comparison, the Zimbabwean government has set the passport fee for its citizens at $270, which is significantly higher than the fees charged by its regional counterparts.

Zimbabwe’s passport production is being carried out in partnership with Garsu Pasaulis, a Lithuania-registered company owned by Semlex of Belgium.

More: Pindula News