The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi yesterday commissioned 41 houses for prison officers, 20 tractors, 8 seed-drill planters and three combine harvesters at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare.
The 41 houses consist of 32 two roomed houses which reportedly accommodate 64 families while 9 other blocks of 5 roomed houses that accommodate 18 families were also unveiled.
The houses were reportedly built by the Prison Construction Unit and funded by Public Sector Investment Programme, which is a government’s medium term strategic investment tool for the development of the country. The farming equipment which is meant to increase prison farm agricultural output at all provinces, was part of the government’s plan to extend the Belarus Agricultural Equipment Programme.
Speaking at the event, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi hailed the positive developments, adding that they were now expecting prison farms to produce higher yields. He added that the equipment was going to be shared by all prisons in the country’s 10 provinces.
“I can safely say that the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service has been capacitated and empowered when it comes to undertaking its agricultural activities. From now and onwards, expectations should now focus on better yields across all the prison farms. May I state that the farm machinery and implements will be distributed across the provinces,” he said.
Hon Ziyambi also urged the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services to perform its various projects whilst following government’s National Development Strategy 1 agenda which is the government’s vehicle to accomplish it’s ambitious Vision 2030, whose aim is to attain an upper middle in class economy by year 2030.
“Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service should execute its various programmes and activities in line with the country’s national vision as fronted by the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) 2021-2025; which is the successor to the National Transitional Stabilization Programme (2018-2020),” added Hon Ziyambi.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Hon Mthuli Ncube, who was also at the event, loaded the development saying that it fits into the government’s economic development agenda for the country.
“Indeed, the efforts are commended given that they are in tandem with the country’s socio-economic initiatives as pronounced in the country’s economic blue print namely, the National Development Strategy 1, as you might want to realise that NDS1 is anchored on, and driven by the need to achieve the national vision 2030 agenda,”
The minister of Justice, Hon Ziyambi Ziyambi and his Finance counterpart also toured various sectors of Chikurubi Maximum security Prison to appreciate first hand the pressing issues that are in need of urgent address.
Other dignitaries who graced the event include the Deputy Minister of Housing and Social Amenities Hon Yeukai Simbanegavi who was representing her boss Hon Daniel Garwe as well as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabhiza.
Zimbabwe’s prison system faces many challenges such as overcrowding, inadequate medical supplies and perennial food shortages. The President through an annual Presidential amnesty pardons an average of 2000 prisoners in order to decongest the prisons. Although a noble gesture, some of the pardoned prisoner eventually return to prison as they find it hard to survive the tough economic conditions currently prevailing.
