Minister calls SABC3 TV crew “Liars”

(source: www.radiovop.com)

HARARE, April 2 2009 – Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
has dismissed as “false” an SABC TV3 Special Assignment documentary which
aired horrifying footage exposing how prisons in the country have become
death camps for thousands of inmates who are deprived of food and medical
care.

In an interview with RadioVOP on Wednesday, Chinamasa said the
documentary, which shocked most Zimbabweans due to its horrifying pictures
of gravely ill inmates, accused the SABC team of fabricating the story.

“What was shown by the SABC3 is not true,” said Chinamasa. “The SABC
is lying. We do not allow cameras into our prisons. We have made
investigations and found out that the footage is not from Zimbabwean but
other countries,” he said.

“The pictures shown are not from Zimbabwe prisons but elsewhere in
Africa and these are being attributed to us.”

But the SABC team said the film, made by SABC’s Special Assignment
programme, was shot over three months with cameras smuggled into the
prisons.