Senate pushes for easier passport collection

The Senate Governance Assurances Committee has called on the Ministry of Home Affairs to ease the country’s passport collection process by delivering passports to community councils and offices of Principal Chiefs nationwide.
In a report released on Friday, the committee also recommended the deployment of police officers to all offices issuing national documents to curb corruption and catch offenders.
The proposals follow an investigation and site visits into the root causes of Lesotho’s long-running passport crisis.
The committee found the current production rate of just 50 passports per day was far too low to meet demand, creating massive backlogs.
“The committee has learned that many Basotho who need these documents are grounded, with their jobs and livelihoods at risk,” the report stated.
During the inquiry, Director of National Identity, Napo Khoele, revealed that the department had a backlog of 30,000 IDs dating back to 2013, which had ballooned to 110,000 by 2024.
He said the ministry had since boosted staffing nationwide and planned to extend working hours to address the delays.
Deputy Director Mochesela Ntisa told the committee that chronic underfunding was a major obstacle. He cited the 2024/25 financial year, when the ministry requested M100,000 to purchase passport paper but received only M47,000 —insufficient to tackle the backlog.