MUTARE – The Zimbabwe Government has been urged to increase the budget allocation to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZCPS) and partner with private partners and stakeholders to make collective efforts to address serious starvation in prisons due to food shortages amid an economic collapse in the country.
A media tour of the Mutare Remanded Prison on Wednesday revealed that there is a serious food and nutritional crisis, as the prison is struggling to provide nutritious and adequate food to inmates due to
recurrent financial challenges
.The media tour was part of a dialogue programme called Kushanda Pamwe/ Working Together organised by Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), supported by the European Union (EU).
The media tour was part of a dialogue programme called Kushanda Pamwe/ Working Together organised by Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), supported by the European Union (EU).
The Kushanda Pamwe/ Working Together programme is aimed at
strengthening and capacitating organisations that provide social
support to vulnerable people in contact and conflict with the national
justice delivery system in Zimbabwe.
The programme is also geared to advocate for the necessary changes in the prisons’ legislation to ensure that it meets international human
rights standards.
Zimbabwe’s long condemned prisons have often been described as death zones because of the poor infrastructure and services in them, as disease and hunger have been the order of the day.
The Zimbabwe Morning Post saw the reality on the ground as the
prisoners were being fed with boiled vegetables, commonly known as
Covo in vernacular without cooking oil.
They are fed once everyday.
Inmates interviewed said they were enduring days of boiled vegetables and sadza.
“It has been long. We are being fed with boiled vegetables without
cooking oil everyday. We are appealing to well wishers oil there to
help us in improving our diet,” said an inmate.
“We are very hungry here. We are being fed little food and the food is
poorly prepared. We feed on boiled vegetables everyday,” said another.
The inmates urged their relatives to bring food.
The ZPCS Assistant Commissioner Didymas Chimvura admitted that of then poor diet and owed it to lack of resources.
“It is not a secret and it is well known of that (poor diet). What is
now needed is to make collective efforts to address the situation. It
is all about lack of resources. Let’s work together and partners must
now come and help in averting these problems,” said Chimvura.
Moses Chananuka the Manicaland Coordinator for Zimbabwe National
Network for People Living with HIV (ZNNP+) said balanced nutrition for
inmates has always been a challenge.
“Our organisation has been working with the Mutare Remand Prison on
various programmes including inmates who are HIV positive,” he said.
“Our poultry project at Mutare Farm prison has assisted much in
supplementing the nutritional needs mainly for those in the
established support groups. The poultry project was established to
supplement nutritional needs for the inmates in support groups,”
Chananuka said.
“Nutrition is the best especially for PLHIV in prison at times they
don’t have cooking oil, sugar or soap imagine taking porridge or
vegetables without sugar and oil,” he said.
Chananuka said the poultry project sustainability has been affected by
change of staff that had know-how to run and manage it leading to its
collapse.
RAU Researcher Tinotenda Chishiri said the main challenges faced by
prisoners are a result of the inadequate financial resources allocated
to the prisons.
“The lack of resources manifests itself in the scarcity of
infrastructural development. Challenges faced by ZPCS include
overcrowding, lack of balanced diet for inmates, lack of separation of
juveniles from adults and the presence of children incarcerated with
their mothers,” she said.
Chishiri said Zimbabwe was bound by international instruments that
include the united nations standard minimum rules on the treatment of
prisoners (also known as the Mandela rules) and the bangkok rules.
“Thus, Zimbabwe has an obligation to ensure that prisoners are treated
in a manner that respects their human dignity. The right to human
dignity entails absolute prohibition of torture, provision of adequate
material conditions including sufficient food, water and access to
healthcare,” said Chishiri.
George Matende from VSO said the right to dignity for prisoners
entails that citizens are to be treated humanely even when they are in
detention.
“We want to recognise the good work being done by various
organisations in partnership with the ZPCS in terms of capacity
building. They have the mandate of uplifting and upholding the justice
delivery system,” said Matende.
According to ZPCS requires around $28 million per year to feed around
21 000 inmates in the country’s 46 prisons as the standard diet is $3
per prisoner although allocations from the government fall far below
the required level.