By Own Correspondent- Registrar General Clemence Masango today cast a dark shadow over prospects of acquiring new passports for citizens amid indications that there is no timeline yet on when the country’s registrar department will be able to print passports.

Lately, the registrar general has been failing to print passports in a development which has seen a lot of citizens in needof the travelling document stranded.

ZimEye managed to get in touch with the Registrar General late Thursday afternoon regarding the department’s failure to print passports.

Mr Clemence Masango told ZimEye the current problem was still ongoing Thursday afternoon. He said since Wednesday night, nothing has changed.

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

ZimEye asked if there is an expected completion date and Mr Masango replied saying, “engineers are working on it so I don’t have any timeframe, it is very difficult to say and I am not an engineer.”

At this point, the following were the responses :

SO FAR WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE DO, SHOULD THEY CONTINUE COMING?

“You are asking me something impossible… I have advised that we are having that challenge,” replied Masango.

HOW DO WE DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGE?

“You are now going technical.”

WE WERE ONLY ASKING FOR AN ESTIMATED DATE OF COMPLETION…

“Ah, no, this is like if a person is ill, even if you are a doctor, do you determine when the person will be healed? I am not an engineer but this is the situation we are faced with.”