Human Rights Lawyers Blast Zim Prisons

By SARAH NCUBE http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=4158
Published: November 9, 2009

GWERU- Members of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in the
Midlands Province say the Zimbabwe justice system does not respect people’s
liberties.

Brian Dube, one of the members of ZLHR and also the National Association of
Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) Midlands chairperson The Zimbabwe
Telegraph that justice in Zimbabwe was only accorded to those who have
access to and can afford legal representation.

Dube was speaking after a visit to Hwahwa Prison under the Prisoners Rights
Programme, which seeks to help those that in jails and cannot afford legal
services to have access to the services for free.

Dube said as ZHLR and also as the chairperson of NANGO in the Midlands
region he had seen that it was necessary for the lawyers to intervene in
cases they feel that justice had not prevailed.

Dube said that some of the courts were just throwing people into the prison.

“Our courts are not sensitive to the right to liberty and to the presumption
of innocence until proven guilty. There are a lot of people rotting in
prisons without any trial and others are not given time to look for fines
simply because they do not have legal representation,” Dube said.

In August under the programme, Dube of Gundu, Mawarire and Partners and the
Midlands board member of ZLHR, Hillary Garikai of Garikai and Partners
helped 40 prisoners get bail after they intervened.

“Most of the prisoners, some who were on remand, were terminally ill and
some of them even had to be carried to us by the prison guards,”Dube said.

“During our interactions with them we realised that some of them had been on
remand for some time. Due to transport problems within the prison services,
some have failed to come for trial and they are forgotten in the jail.”

Dube also said that others were people who could just have been given time
to raise fines. He said some of the prisoners picked up in beerhalls for
fights, confessed that their relatives were not even aware that they were at
Hwahwa as there was no stationery at the prison for prisoners to communicate
with their families and loved ones.

Dube said it was too costly for the State to feed these prisoners instead
they could be given the opportunity to go and look for money to pay fines
which would be even more beneficial to the state.

“In particular, we visited the Shurugwi Court after suspecting the
insensitivity of the court in not granting convicts time to pay,” read part
of the report that was compiled by the two lawyers.

Dube said although they had successfully managed to help some of the
prisoners out, they were shocked during the recent visit to find that there
were again more people and they had to apply to the Shurugwi Court to allow
inmates to be given time to pay fines and they were released.

The report by the lawyers also indicate that even some mentally ill people
were at the prison instead of them being reffered to a health institution.

Sources said that although food supply had improved at the prison just
outside Gweru, malnbutrition was rife and prisoners who required ARV’s were
not getting them.