Nkhensani Chauke
THE City of Tshwane on Tuesday closed off some streets to allow a handful of Zimbabwean nationals to march to their embassy in Pretoria, in protest over passport price hikes said to be more than 50%.
On 26 July, the Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg announced that the price of a passport would increase from $170 (about R3100) to $250 (about R4540) prompting over a thousand Zimbabweans to sign a petition demanding that their government review its decision to hike the prices.
BGS Migration and Service leader Shelton Chiyangwa said the Zimbabwean government wanted to capitalise on the Zimbabweans nationals residing in South Africa and expressed concern that this increase may lead to a rise in the number of illegal immigrants in South Africa.
“This will definitely affect a lot and contribute to an increase of undocumented Zimbabweans that are in the country,” he said.
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