By Own Correspondent| The Registrar General’s Office has expressed concern over the huge number of uncollected passports some of which have since expired before collection.

About 53 000 have remained uncollected at the RG’s office, of which 11 144 have since expired.

Speaking at a media briefing, Registrar General Mr Clemence Masango said his department is highly concerned with the high number of uncollected passports, some of which date back to 10 years ago.

He called on Zimbabweans residing in South Africa who had applied for passports to contact the Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg for collection.

Said Masango:

“We therefore encourage all those who applied for passports prior to May 2018 and have not yet collected to come and collect them.”

The Registrar General’s Department is currently experiencing a backlog of 166 240 applications dating back to May 2018.

The department says it has come up with an implementation plan to clear the backlog once the necessary resources are in place with a possibility of a shift system.-StateMedia