The Zimbabwean government will soon roll out e-commerce passports that have watertight security features as a way to curb the scourge of forged passports.

The e-passports have a micro-chip at the back cover which when scanned will give the details of the owner and his face to the person watching the system making those fraudsters who used to place a photo of their face on other people’s passports redundant.

Addressing the media on the sidelines of a death registration workshop in Bulawayo, Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede said his office will not terminate the ordinary passports as they will be phased out once they expire with the issuance of the new passports expected soon.

Mid last year, President Robert Mugabe commissioned a state of the art machine that was meant to print the e-passports at a capacity of 16 000 booklets daily.

On relaxing the issuance of birth certificates and national identity cards to grown up people, Registrar General Mudede said strict vetting will remain in place as it is in the national interest for his office to protect Zimbabweans from certain benefits to be enjoyed by her citizens.

The Registrar General’s office warned office bearers from processing deceased persons’ benefits by use of burial orders saying, there is need for people to wait for proper death certificate and liaise with the office before executing such procedures as a way to deal with would be fraudsters.- state media