Tempers Boil Over Passports

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU

THERE were long queues at the Home Affairs offices in Maseru this week with scores of Basotho demanding new passports.

Some of them said they had been waiting for the passports for over a year, with the government not giving them a clear explanation as to why they had still not been issued with the travel document.

The crisis at Home Affairs comes at a time when more than 500 Basotho have been arrested in the last week for crossing the border into South Africa without passports

Many of these were travelling back to South Africa where they are employed. The South African police mounted roadblocks a few kilometres from the border gates.

When thepost crew arrived at the passport office in Maseru yesterday, dozens were cuddled under the trees protecting themselves from the scorching sun.

One official from the passport office came out to tell the desperate applicants that he was going to issue passports only to those going to school or who work outside the country.

The official said the applicants should produce their work or study permits for them to be issued with passports.

'Mampolokeng Poea, 41, a domestic worker in South Africa, told thepost that she applied for a passport in 2023 and it has not been issued since

Poea went to South Africa in 2021 after being retrenched from textile factories in Maseru due to Covid-19.

“I have come here three times without success,” Poea said.

The mother of three said police chase them while at work in South Africa once it becomes clear to them that they are illegal immigrants.

We are always on the run, she said.

She said she illegally crossed into Lesotho for the Christmas holidays, assisted by“some boys” at the Maseru border, whom she paid

She said if she would not get the passport by yesterday she would go to Maputsoe to illegally cross to South Africa as the Maseru border is now swarming with law enforcement agents.

“This is painful but there is nothing that we can do,” Poea said.

She said poverty pushed her out of her home to seek better fortunes in South Africa.

Her husband is also trying his luck in the construction sites but is struggling in South Africa.

“Men are the most vulnerable and prone to police attacks in South Africa,” she said

Poea said she once exchanged harsh words with one passport official in Maseru when she enquired about her passport.

“That man told me that he does not make passports. He was not cooperative at all,” Poea said.

“Whether I get a passport or not, I am going to work in South Africa,” she said.

“If I managed to come here, I will also manage to go back.”

Another passport applicant, 'Malillo Napo, in her 50s, said she applied for a passport in February last year but it has not been issued to date

Napo, a widow eking out a living in the South African domestic sector, blames the government for failure to produce passports.

What frustrates her is that the people who applied as recently as May have got their passports while she is still waiting.

“I do not know how this system operates,” Napo said.

Mputi Nkhasi, another applicant, said he has been coming to check for his passport that he applied for last year.

Nkhasi works at construction sites in South Africa

“Whether I will get a passport or not, I am going to South Africa. I will cross the river,” Nkhasi said.

Last night, the Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson 'Marelebohile Mothibeli said their operating system is down at the moment.

“We are still issuing the passports but our system is down,” Mothibeli said.

Majara Molupe

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