{"id":35099,"date":"2023-10-22T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports"},"modified":"2023-10-22T15:58:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T15:58:54","slug":"why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports","title":{"rendered":"Why Lesotho is struggling to issue passports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho is struggling to issue passports to its citizens after supplies of a security microchip that is critical in the production of passports were hit by the Russia-Ukraine war, thepost heard this week.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs principal secretary Tumelo Raboletsi told thepost on Tuesday that the war has made it difficult for Lesotho to source the chips that are needed in the manufacturing of passports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure we are all aware that our latest passports have a microchip, which is controlled worldwide,\u201d Raboletsi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the production of passports was affected due to the on-going conflict between Russia and Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

About half of the world\u2019s semiconductor grade neon and palladium supply comes from Ukraine and Russia. The war between the two countries has severely affected supplies of the commodities.<\/p>\n

Raboletsi was responding to questions why Lesotho has been delaying to issue passports to its citizens in the last few years. He said at first, the issuance of a passport would take only up to five days after all new developments were made, until \u201cwe had a hiccup\u201d.<\/p>\n

Raboletsi said the other problem they were struggling with was that of Basotho who do not collect their passports, leading to the documents piling up in their offices.<\/p>\n

He said some who had applied for urgent passports also did not collect the documents. In an effort to control this, Raboletsi said the government hiked the price of a passport from M130 to M630.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Basotho know that a normal passport would take only up to five days to be ready,\u201d Raboletsi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would pay extra only if you needed your passport immediately.\u201d But even after hiking the price of a passports, \u201cthey still do not collect their passports\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went as far as publicly announcing the names of passport owners on radio stations,\u201d Raboletsi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to make a special plea to all Basotho to collect their passports on the agreed time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why they requested passports that would last for only two months, Raboletsi said they normally look at the previous requests and estimate how the new requests are likely to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also look at things such as the birth rate and passport usage, some people use their passports daily so that means it won\u2019t last for 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Passport Services director, Mpiko Rafono, said people should call him at 22215929 or 80050074 to avoid going to the passport office from time to time to enquire about their passports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have an SMS system that notifies people when their passports are ready even though sometimes the system may be down,\u201d Rafono said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho is struggling to issue passports to its citizens after supplies of a security microchip that is critical in the production of passports were hit by the Russia-Ukraine war, thepost heard this week. Home Affairs principal secretary Tumelo Raboletsi told thepost on Tuesday that the war has made it difficult for Lesotho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":35098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7],"tags":[233,246,245,2349],"class_list":["post-35099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-passports"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Lesotho is struggling to issue passports - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lesotho is struggling to issue passports to its citizens after supplies of a security microchip that is critical in the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Lesotho is struggling to issue passports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lesotho is struggling to issue passports to its citizens after supplies of a security microchip that is critical in the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-22T15:37:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-22T15:58:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/10\/sm_1697977622.258096.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"504\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why Lesotho is struggling to issue passports\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-22T15:37:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-22T15:58:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/10\/sm_1697977622.258096.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"passports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-lesotho-is-struggling-to-issue-passports\",\"name\":\"Why Lesotho is struggling to issue passports - 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