Zimbabwe: Passport fees leave a population going nowhere
HARARE: After being accepted by a South African university, Golden Gutu thought the hard part was over, but the worst hurdles for Zimbabweans trying to further their studies were just beginning.
There was just the small matter of a passport, and then he could pack his bags. When he had last checked with the Registrar General's Office in the capital, Harare, which issues travel documents, an emergency passport cost US$200, a sum he had painstakingly saved.
Last week, he went to apply for a passport. "I was devastated when I was told that the government was no longer accepting its own currency [the Zimbabwean dollar], and that the cost of a passport for an adult had risen to US$670, while a new passport for children was now costing US$420," he told IRIN.
