BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Minister for Home Affairs Princess Lindiwe promised that passports would be delivered before the end of February and she proved to be a woman of her word, as she delivered same two weeks before the end of this month.
The Ministry for Home Affairs is of the view that it is because of the Minister’s wisdom that the passports were able to be delivered in time. Ministry of Home Affairs Communications Officer Mlandvo Dlamini said the Minister, upon realising that there was a crisis, stood up and went to Malta to negotiate with the company that produced the travel documents and passports for the country.
Speaking on Eswatini TV’s Kusile Breakfast Show, Dlamini said the Minister did this at a time when many companies closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Dlamini stated that one of the companies that helped in producing the country’s travel documents had to close because of COVID-19 outbreak. This made the Ministry to secure services elsewhere.
According to Dlamini, the new company needed six months to produce a highly secured paper, which was necessary for the travel documents to be produced. After producing that paper, another three months would be needed for either passports or travel documents to be compiled and produced. This means a period of nine months is needed for the travel documents or passports to be produced.
Dlamini said because of her wisdom, the Minister had to come back with some passports in January from Malta, where she had gone to negotiate for the speedy delivery of the passports. This made the Ministry to be able to issue some of the available passport, while they waited for the ones that have arrived now.
The Communications Officer said those who had applied on Monday got their passport by today because they were dealing with the backlog caused by the crisis. He believed that by the end of today, they would have dealt with the backlog and things could be normal. Dlamini advised Emaswati to use service centres around the country to get the passports.
He also said some Constituency centres could also be used for the same purpose. He also mentioned that travel documents, under normal circumstances, could be secured within a day and passports could be secured within two weeks because the police were also involved when passports had to be issued. He said the documents needed when applying for travel documents included the national identity card (ID card) and a birth certificate (the original and certified copies).
He said the certified copies and the original document were needed for verification purposes. The categories of the passports available include:
- 32-page travel document @ E150
- 48-page travel document @ E300
- 68-page travel document @ E500
- Ordinary international passport @ E300
- Service passport @ E400
- Diplomatic passport @ E600.
