Government to issue new IDs next month
The Zanzibar Resident Identity Cards Department is to start issuing new IDs to Zanzibaris from next month.
Speaking to journalists here yesterday, the department’s Director, Mohammed Juma Ame, said the plan for IDs to be valid for five years was only a temporary measure to see if the system would work well.
“We issued IDs to last for a five-year period, beginning from the year 2005. It was a pilot project; now we have been satisfied with the outcome and we shall start issuing new IDs to last for ten years from next month,” Ame said.
The director said the current IDs had to be discarded because they could be forged.
He said the plan was to issue 500,000 IDs by the end of last year, but until early this year 547,000 IDs had been issued.
Ame said his department had no intention whatsoever to tender for the production of Union government IDs. He said his department was not a commercial entity to take part in tenders.
The director also refuted claims that some people were deliberately being denied the IDs.
Ame said he had been receiving complaints from people that local governments officials (shehas) were frustrating their efforts to acquire IDs.
“But when we follow up the matter the complainants refuse to co-operate with us,” he said.
He said he had so far received 150 appeals, all accusing shehas of deliberate failure to process their applications to acquire Zanzibar IDs.
The Guardian (Tanzania)
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