Zimbabwe’s Home Affairs department has introduced new six-month multiple-entry temporary travel documents (TTD) to replace the existing 21-day emergency travel documents (ETD), which have been rejected by South African immigration at the Beit Bridge border post.

The registrar-general, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, said this would address the challenges of counterfeit travel papers that fraudsters were producing and using to cross the border. "We have issued a new document, which is machine-readable just like a passport and this is meant to curb fraudulent activities by those who have been trying to imitate our documents. It is much more secure than the old one, which was not machine-readable.

"The new document meets required international standards and will be valid for a period of six months," Mudede said.

He said the TTD would be used in countries that already accepted Zimbabwe’s ETDs. He urged ports of entry officials to accept 21-day ETDs until they expired.

The new TTD has a security watermark, a lining at the margin of the document and the national identity number.

Mudede said the new document also had invisible marks, which could only be detected by a machine. "Having experienced fraudsters who have been producing counterfeit documents, we have decided to tighten the security features with invisible marks which can only be detected by the machine at ports of entry."

He urged Zimbabweans to apply for travel documents from designated offices only.

In December last year, scores of Zimbabweans intending to travel to South Africa for Christmas shopping were left stranded at Beit Bridge Border Post after South African Home Affairs officials rejected ETDs. South Africa’s Home Affairs department officials argued that the travel documents had been tampered with and insisted that their Zimbabwean counterparts should first authenticate them. This was after ETDs whose validity was 21 days, were altered and five more months added and signed for by Zimbabwean authorities in long hand.

In September last year, Zimbabweans with ETDs issued in Gweru and Bulawayo were also barred from entering South Africa because of a flood of fake documents produced in the two cities. Zimbabwean officials requested the suspension while police investigated a major theft of ETD documents from the local passport offices.