An outrageous and extremely provocative campaign that shines a spotlight on the Zanu PF clique who are looting Zimbabwe’s national assets has been launched in Johannesburg. The campaign titled “Red Card ZIMafia” has a football theme in line with the World Cup sporting event currently taking place in South Africa.
Paradzai Zimondi is featured in the team lineup as the left back – a defensive position in the game of football. This relates to his current role as head of Zimbabwe’s Prison service where his complete lack of humanity, not to mention management skills, saw many prisoners starve to death making every jail sentence a death sentence. At the same time as an inner member of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) he has enriched himself beyond measure.
Here is his complete CV from the ZIMafia website:
Number: 3
Position: Left Back – Major General (Ret.) – Head of the Zimbabwe Prison Service
Career Highlights:
- Sent his officers to help forced army and police voting for Mugabe in polls
- Forces prison personnel to support Mugabe
- Uses slave labour from the prisons on his stolen farms
- Prisons budgets ‘insufficient’ to clothe or feed prisoners
- Lack of prison clothing mean some inmates go naked
- Lets prisoners starve to death or die of illness
- Buries deceased prisoners in unmarked graves
- Prison conditions among the worst in Africa, no medics, no cleaning
- Encourages cruelty and abuses by officers e.g. cold water hosing of prisoners during winter nights
- Ignores human rights groups reports on prison conditions
The team coach is Robert Mugabe and the rest of the team comprise: Patrick Chinamasa, Obert Mpofu, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Gideon Gono, Perence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga, Johannes Tomana, Happyton Bonyongwe, Augustine Chihuri and Phillip Sibanda.
Some names may appear unfamiliar but they are all members of the JOC and have played an active part in robbing Zimbabweans of their freedom and rights. They have also bankrupted Zimbabwe, leaving a legacy of debt that will take generations to repay, while amassing large personal fortunes.
The campaign takes the form of a soccer team, Zimbabwe’s Worst Eleven, who are traveling around Johannesburg in the “Bling Bus” which is embellished with bars of gold and diamonds. The “Team” perform street theatre attracting crowds wherever they go and are handing out leaflets, t-shirts and other campaign material.
Find out more about ZIMafia and meet the team: www.zimafia.com/meet-the-team/
Show your support by linking to the ZIMafia Facebook page which is here: www.facebook.com/pages/ZIMafia/120044424705924?v=wall
Jul 05, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
SABC’s Special Assignment scoops Amnesty International award
April 21 2010, 6:40:00
The SABC’s investigative news programme, Special Assignment, has won the coveted Amnesty International Award for Human Rights. It was presented at the Commonwealth Broadcasters’ Association (CBA) Awards in Johannesburg last night.
The winning Special Assignment documentary titled ‘Hell Hole’, is about prison conditions in Zimbabwe. The documentary was co-produced by Johann Abrahams and Godknows Nare. The award was described by SABC’s acting Head of News Phil Molefe as a golden feather in the investigative cap of SABC News.
Molefe was himself honoured for having served the public broadcaster, the CBA as well as the principles of public service broadcasting. The five-day CBA general conference heard yesterday that hundreds of journalists are killed or come under attack around the world every year, simply for doing their jobs, and that many others face threats and intimidation.
Apr 21, 2010 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From VOA News, 1 February
Peta Thornycroft
Harare – Police in Zimbabwe are warning they do not have enough money to feed people in holding cells around the country. The whole justice system in Zimbabwe is threatened by lack of adequate resources. Although fewer people are being arrested now than in previous years, the police say they do not have enough money to feed those held in custody at police stations. Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said if arrested people are not given food by relatives or from sympathetic policemen paying for food out of their own pockets, detainees are going hungry. He said policemen, like many other civil servants, are only earning about $150 a month. Bvudzijena said the worst affected among those people arrested and held in rural police districts. He said some charitable organizations helped feed suspects in urban areas like Harare, but it is never enough. The assistant commissioner said the police force received less than 10 percent of the funds it requested in the last budget. He said many police vehicles no longer work and the police infrastructure is disintegrating fast.
Insiders in the Department of Justice say it is also affected with a shortage of prosecutors, magistrates, and other staff servicing the courts. This is leading to longer stays in jail for prisoners awaiting trial. Former Commercial Farmers Union president Trevor Gifford and a colleague were supposed to appear in court Friday in the eastern city Mutare. But there was no staff to process them and they were held in custody over the weekend. They were arrested on contempt of court charges because, their lawyers say, they tried to deliver a High Court order to a presiding magistrate. Other Zimbabwe government ministries are also short of cash. Education minister David Coltart said Sunday his allocation is $1 per child at school per month. He said this is a shocking statistic affecting three million school children. Finance Minister Tendai Biti is raising about $90 million a month to run Zimbabwe and there are few indications revenue is going to increase.
Feb 03, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
From The Zimbabwean – 20 January 2010
HARARE -Prisons commissioner Paradzayi Zimondi (Pictured) has transformed the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) into a quasi-military corps, running the correctional service as his personal fiefdom, disgruntled prison officers told The Zimbabwean this week..
They recounted how Zimondi had transmogrified the prison service from its duty to provide correctional services into a full military wing.
Sources revealed systematic plunder of the prison service by the commissioner, and how State resources had been diverted to bankroll Zimondi’s myriad personal enterprises.
Officers said food had been allegedly seized from prisons, leaving prisoners in despair.
After the March 2008 harmonised poll, prison officers recalled how Zimondi seized 100 cattle and 10 horses from Chikurubi Farm, and transferred all prison pigs to his farm. He is said to have brought famished cattle in to replace the heifers he allegedly looted.
Zimondi would seize milk and fresh produce from the farm prison and take it to his restaurant in Ruwa, called Plaka.
“He took building materials from the ZPS stores and built a dairy at his farm in Bromley,” said one officer. “Builders, electricians, carpenters were made to do the work. He built houses in Harare. I worked on some of the projects. We built a house in Milton Park, renovated one in Gunhill, and built a house for the (Justice and legal Affairs) permanent secretary, David Mangota in Donnybrooke using government materials stolen from the ZPS stores,” he said.
Other equipment was also said to have been taken to Zimondi’s two other farms in Shamva and Bindura. There are unconfirmed reports that he co-owns a banana plantation with police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri.
It was further alleged Zimondi had properties in Kariba, where he is involved in a poaching ring slaughtering elephants for ivory. To over up the tracks, the meat is given to prisoners, but most of the time it is going bad. “He uses prison vehicles to transport the bodies of elephants,” said the officer. “Prison vehicles are not searched at roadblocks, making easy passage.”
Poaching
The poaching was said to be taking place in Gonarezhou and Hwange. The Zimbabwean heard that these activities had been going on since April 2009.
“He has also built a church in Murehwa using prison materials,” another source said.
Officers say that as far back as 1999, Zimondi established a military police branch at the ZPS. From 2001, he brought in soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army to head all prison departments at the expense of experienced officers, who were forced into early retirement or moved from headquarters to work in prisons.
These military personnel include commissioners Ndlovu, Chihobvu – head of security; Kanonge – finance; Dube – construction, Maredza – projects and Ndebele – quartermaster.
Officers spoke exclusively to this newspaper about the purge of the prison service by Zimondi over the past decade, recounting in meticulous detail harassment and torture of officers suspected of being sympathetic to the MDC.
“From 2000, Zimondi controlled the ZPS cruelly. When Zanu (PF) lost to the MDC (in 2000), Zimondi formed the prisons military police to control and suppress MDC sympathisers in the ZPS. Torture of officers began. When Tendai Biti won the Harare East (constituency) in 2000, he held a celebration rally at Gletwyn Farm near Chikurubi. Officers who attended the rally were arrested and tortured. Some were discharged from their duties. The case was brought before the Rotten Row Magistrates Court. The perpetrators were found innocent and went back to work.”
The tortured officers were named as Shepherd Yuda, Andew Mabidi, Officer Njiri, Officer Bvunzawabaya and Officer Masarakufa, who has sine left the prison service and is now an MDC-T councillor in Mhondoro.
The situation worsened dramatically during the run-up to the sham June 27, 2008 run-off polls. At the heart of Zimondi’s terror campaign were asst commissioner Pambai, the officer-in-charge at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, the chief superintendent, the superintendent, principal prison officer (PPO), Gavhu, PPO Ndebele, prison officer Choto, prison officer Gonzo, prison officer Moffat, Makurudzo, PPO Malunga, prison officer Nyakahembe, PPO Ngulube.
A security department, allegedly manned by central intelligence organisation operatives Makurudzo, Mthombeni and Nyakahembe masquerading as prison officer, was formed. Efforts to obtain comment from Zimondi were futile at the time of going to print. The ZPS public relations requested written questions, which have been submitted.
Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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.
Nov 17, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
From The Zimbabwean, 12 October 09
Written by Taurai Bande
HARARE-A semi-autonomous group of the Roman Catholic Church, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVP), recently bank rolled Zimbabwe’s prison farm projects to the tune of US$6 000.
The society made up of voluntary members of the church, mobilized resources to alleviate suffering among prisoners, following revelations by the South Africa Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC), that inmates in Zimbabwe’s prisons were starving and living under inhuman conditions.”We were touched by pictures of skinny prison inmates shown by the SABC, and decided to assist in whatever way possible. Initially, we donated food for inmates at various prisons across the country. To provide lasting solutions to prison woes, we decided to capacitate prisons through resuscitating collapsed farm projects. We rehabilitated irrigation equipment at Chikurubi maximum prison farm and provided farm inputs such as seed, fuel and dipping chemicals for a herd of 300 cattle at the farm,” said SSVP secretary general and president of Harare district council, Michael Mangwende.
Mangwende said: “Following the rehabilitation of irrigation equipment at Chikurubi, the prison is now in a position to provide its own vegetables for its inmates. The church society managed to resuscitate and put an 11 hectare vegetable garden under irrigation. Previously, inmates used to water the garden with cans. The project cost US$5 000. At Mazoe prison, SSVP injected US$1 000 in a four hectare vegetable project. Ridigita Prison in Marondera also benefited from our assistance to the tune of $700 for a four hectare vegetable scheme. Our assistance thrust is aimed at achieving total resuscitation of the country’s 24 prison farms,” he said.
Following revelations of shocking pictures by the SABC, SSVP also donated 800 blankets, soap and cooking oil to inmates held at eight prisons out of Harare. Each prison received 100 blankets. The society is currently assessing clothing requirements for inmates, ahead of a planed donation of prisoners’ uniforms. In the past, SSVP donated blankets and food to victims of Muzarabani floods, the cholera epidemic and orphans left by cholera victims. The food packs lasted four months. SSVP is funded by well-wishers, the Roman Catholic church and the church’s Arch-bishop.
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Editor’s comment: Once more the teflon Prison’s boss Paradzai Zimondi, who has presided over the looting and destruction of the prison farms, remains completely silent, ducking the issue and dodging the blame.
Why doesn’t the Minister of Home Affairs FIRE him?
Oct 16, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
From The Zimbabwean
Written by TAKESURE BIZURE
Monday, 14 September 2009 00:00
HARARE – Prison inmates released through a presidential amnesty on
Friday say they are lucky to survive their stay in the country’s jails,
described by Amnesty International in July this year as deplorable and unfit
for humans. Close to 1,000 prisoners are said to have died of hunger and
disease in Zimbabwe’s jails between January and June this year. Emaciated,
starving and sick – prisoners released early from Zimbabwe’s overcrowded,
disease-infested jails say they were lucky to survive. This picture comes
from film footage shot secretly in one of the country’s prisons for an SABC
documentary.
Released inmates interviewed by The Zimbabwean said they were thankful
to god for sparing them from the hunger and disease that have plagued the
country’s jails in the past years.
“Prison life was so tough. There was lots of disease and persistent
hunger. We were continually subjected to plain beans, boiled cabbages and
sometimes porridge,” said 25-year-old Chazika Chazika, a burglary convict
who was released from Harare central prison after completing 10 months of a
20-month sentence. An international outcry over rights abuses by President
Robert Mugabe’s government pressured the government into the early release
of 2,500 convicts under a presidential pardon.
Zimbabwe’s judge president Rita Makarau had said sentencing people to
jail terms under the current situation was tantamount to passing death
sentences on them. Film footage, shot secretly in the prisons, alerted the
world to the dire conditions faced by the starving prisoners, and
humanitarian groups sent in supplies of water, food, clothing and medicines.
Reports say the rate of deaths has since dropped from three to two per
week. Former prisoner Costa Vinyu (19) said he would rather brave poverty in
the outside world than steal and go back to the life he had experienced
during the 10 months of his incarceration. “Life was so unbearable inside.
Our prisons are not places one should go back to. Diseases were rampant and
hunger was persistent,” he said. “I thank god I survived the cholera
outbreak. Several of my friends died through the disease. Our cells were
always overcrowded. “Our diet only changed on July 12 this year, when the
Red Cross came in to donate foodstuffs. Before that, our meal times were
irregular.”
Tawanda Murodzi, another ex-inmate released after serving two years of
a five-year sentence, said inmates were constantly subjected to long periods
of starvation. “We could spend the whole day without eating anything,” he
said. “Most of the time we would go up to 9pm without taking any meal. We
would then each be given a cup of boiled cabbage. The next morning we would
drink a lot of water to stave off hunger. “We experienced diseases such as
pellagra. We saw the whole cholera havoc wreck our jails. Colleagues died in
our midst. It was a question of when the disease would catch up with us,”
said Murodzi. Among those freed were women prisoners, those in open prisons
and life inmates who had served 20 or more years. The amnesty excluded
prisoners jailed for serious crimes, including murder, rape and vehicle
hijacking.
Sep 16, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Zimbabwe Times – 12th September 2009
A television documentary produced with hidden cameras in Beitbridge in March 2009 featured these emaciated prisoners.
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – There were scenes of jubilation and celebration at Harare Central Prison on Friday as relatives reunited with their loved ones as they were released freed from prison after serving terms of incarceration.Prison authorities began releasing hordes of inmates who are beneficiaries of a recent order of clemency extended to 2 500 convicts by President Robert Mugabe.
While the total number of beneficiaries of the presidential amnesty was first reported in the state media last week as 1 544, Zimbabwe Prison Service public relations officer, Elizabeth Banda, told journalists Friday the actual number of those to be freed was 2 513.
Among those granted amnesty were all women prisoners, inmates serving three-year terms who had completed a quarter of their sentence, as well as those in open prisons and life inmates who had served 20 or more years.
The amnesty excluded prisoners jailed for serious crimes including murder, rape and vehicle hijacking.
Officials say that while Zimbabwe’s prison have a holding capacity of 17 000 inmates, the current population is about 13 000.
Elated relatives said they had been living in fear of losing their loved ones to hunger and disease in Zimbabwe’s notorious jails.
Close to 1 000 prisoners are reported to have died in Zimbabwe’s jails between January and June this year.
The death rate is said to have since dropped from three per week to two.
“I cannot believe this. For the past two nights I have not had sleep trying to contain my happiness. I will never move near a jail again,” said a visibly elated Lovemore Bvuno (63), who was released from Harare Central prison after serving for 23 years.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for murder.
Christopher Munyoro (64), who had served 25 years of a life sentence for the murder of his employer, said he felt born again.
Munyoro, whose entire family died of hunger and disease while he was in prison, said he was apologetic to both his victim and family.
Toendepi Mahaso, who volunteered to speak on behalf of a batch of 30 newly freed prisoners who were paraded for their final briefing by prison officers, said he was thankful to President Mugabe for the clemency.
“I say thank you very much to the President Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” he said, speaking in English. “I say thank you very much for the clemency.
“Sometimes justice has got to be tempered with mercy. Justice must have a human face and we have seen the human face of justice today by being released before our EDR (Expected Date of Release).
“We promise we are going to behave, to do very well out there. This is not the end of the world. Imprisonment is not the end of life, this is actually the beginning of a new life. Our old life has been destroyed and we are given a new lease of life.
“That is what we have received.”
The amnesty is an attempt by the current inclusive government to ease congestion in Zimbabwe’s 42 jails.
The jails are now viewed as death camps because of their poor sanitary conditions and a perennial shortage of food and medical drugs.
The country’s prisons did not survive the deadly cholera epidemic which broke out mid-last year killing 4 000 and living more than 80 000 hospitalised.
The epidemic was only contained after the intervention of humanitarian aid groups which brought medicine and other forms of assistance that helped suppress the continued spread of the dreaded disease.
Sep 14, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From www.Zimnetradio.com
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 8th September, 2009
ZIMBABWE – HARARE – The spotlight was on Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, as 1500 prisoners were freed on a presidential amnesty decree.
The released prisoners said they were confined in overcrowded cells, measuring 9m by 4m. Typically speaking there are 25 men per cell.
Each day the men are confined to their squalid cells between the hours of 3:30pm and 7:00am. Four to five times a week they are also locked up for the guards lunch break, between the hours of 11:30am and 1:00pm.
zim NET radio was told there are no beds and so the prisoners have to sleep on mats spread out over the crowded cell floor.
Some inmates refused to wash, which resulted in blankets becoming lice infested. There is a predominance of HIV positive, practising homosexuals within this rat and lice infested prison.
The cells are shared with people in the terminal stages of AIDS, Tuberculosis, Herpes and other highly infectious diseases, as well as some prisoners who are mentally ill. This was apparent on prisoners freed Tuesday. Most of them were sick to the point of death.
Many of the infected prisoners were unable to control their bodily functions. They described scenes of prison floors and blankets being contaminated with body fluids; pus, phlegm, blood, urine, faeces.
Human rights groups said this was in contravention of Article 24 of the International Bill of Human Rights, which covers the state providing a safe environment.
The sanitary conditions they were forced to live under were a terrible threat to their well being.
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Sep 11, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
Editorial from The Zimbabwean, 4 Sept 2009
The decision by President Robert Mugabe last week to grant
amnesty to more than 1 500 prisoners in order to ease congestion in jails more than anything else demonstrates all that is wrong with Zimbabwe’s leader.
His total failure to appreciate the urgency of the disaster that is Zimbabwe today, is made worse by utter contempt for the lowly minions that we ordinary Zimbabweans must be in his eyes.
Announcing the amnesty, Ministry of Justice permanent secretary David Mangota said Mugabe had finally acceded to pleas by prison officials to grant the amnesty as a “short-term relief option to try and contain some of these challenges seriously and negatively impacting on the effective and efficient administration of prisons”.
Really? Where has the President been living that he is realising only now that the country’s under-funded and over-crowded jails are essentially death camps where, to use Judge President Rita Makarau’s words, all inmates face death from disease and hunger.
In April, a South African television documentary showed shocking images of half-naked, skeletal prisoners wasting away from hunger and disease that were smuggled from some of Zimbabwe’s jails.
What did the government (read Mugabe and Zanu (PF) who control the justice system) do?
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa vehemently denied the prisoners shown in the documentary were from Zimbabwean jails, while prison commanders immediately launched a witch-hunt to identify and punish prison guards who had allowed South African journalists into the jails.
When Amnesty International condemned last June the inhuman conditions in Zimbabwe’s jails where, according to the world human rights watchdog, nearly 1 000 inmates died of hunger and disease in the first six months of this year alone, again what did Mugabe and company do?
They merely buried their heads in the sand and dismissed all these reports as propaganda by Western-funded NGOs out to tarnish the “good name” of Mugabe to aid a British and American plot to oust him from power.
That the government could deny the crisis in jails while prison mortuaries where running out of space to store corpses of dead prisoners and at the same time as it allowed the Red Cross to supply food to prisons because it was failing to do so, shows such disregard for human life you would never expect even from Zanu (PF).
And when Mugabe finally awakened to the mess in jails, it took three weeks for him to sign the amnesty order because, according to Mangota, there were “some delays” in the relevant papers reaching him.
But when you consider the fact that even after the order was signed no prisoner was released because officials are yet to identify who qualifies, it becomes difficult to avoid concluding that some of these people in government actually belong in jail.
Sep 09, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Zimbabwe Times – By Owen Chikari, 7th September 2009
MASVINGO – At least 10 prison officers based at Mutimurefu Prison on the outskirts of Masvingo city are battling for their lives at Masvingo General Hospital after they were allegedly tortured by the military police for indiscipline.
The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has reportedly deployed military police at the main prisons countrywide to curb cases of indiscipline. Some dangerous criminals have escaped from custody while prison officers were on duty.
The 10 officers said yesterday said they were tortured for reporting for work late while senior prison officers said they were punished for unspecified cases of indiscipline.
Two of the victims were unconscious when they were brought to hospital.
“We were just told that we had reported for work late hence we were supposed to be disciplined”, said one of the officers.
“Some of us sustained serious injuries and our seniors have barred us from making a police report”.
The officer in charge of Mutimurefu Prison, Finos Masango, yesterday confirmed the prison officers were disciplined but pleaded with the media not to publish the story.
“The ten were just disciplined in a normal way and to say they were tortured is very untrue”, said Masango. “I plead with you not to publish this story because it is sensitive. Only two sustained serious injuries while others were just treated for minor injuries.”
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice David Mangota yesterday professed ignorance over the issue but vowed to investigate the case.
“I am not aware of that but right now I am going to institute investigations so that a full report is forwarded to me within two days”, said Mangota.
Zimbabwe’s prisons are overcrowded. Last week President Robert Mugabe pardoned about 1500 prisoners.
Cases of inmates escaping from custody after paying bribes to prison officials are on the increase in the country.
According to reliable sources this has prompted the ministry to deploy military police at its main prisons to curb cases of indiscipline.
“The military police have been deployed in all the country’s prisons to instill discipline among officers”, said the source.
“However, in some cases some of the military police personnel beat people severely hence the incident at Mutimurefu”.
Last year about six inmates, most of them facing serious criminal charges, escaped from Masvingo Remand Prison after allegedly paying cash in return for their freedom.
Two of the inmates were re-arrested while the rest are still at large. Four prison officers were later arrested while the officer in charge has since been fired.
Sep 07, 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
From The Zimbabwean – 2nd September 2009
HARARE-With nowhere else to run and few people left to blame, President Robert Mugabe has conceded that the country’s prison system has collapsed while inmates continue to succumb to treatable diseases.
So serious is the situation that President Mugabe was forced to make an order that has been cited as the Clemency Order No 1 of 2009 through the government gazette Vol LXXXVII, No 60 of 21 August 2009 which serves to release inmates from custody in a variety of categories.
At least 1 544 inmates are expected to benefit from the President’s mercy.
The dire circumstances had led to trials failing to take place effectively trampling on the constitutional rights of suspects and prisoners.
Last month, the Justice Ministry committed itself to alleviating the plight of prisoners whose death toll had risen to over 1000 in the first four months of the year.
In light of the above and the in concurrence with the 100 day government plan, the Zimbabwe Prison Service through its acting public relations officer Elizabeth Banda said: “Due to inadequate financial resources coupled with the unfavorable economic environment, the ZPS has faced challenges in fulfilling its set objectives and statutory obligations which include provision of prisoners’ rations, clothing and bedding, toiletries and transport among others.
“As a short term relief option to try and contain some of these challenges seriously and negatively impacting on the effective and efficient administration of prisoners, a proposal to have a general amnesty granted to inmates was submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs.”
Categories which have been cited include; full remission of remainder of sentences for convicted female prisoners, save for those serving for specified offences, full remission of remainder of sentences for convicted juveniles, full remission of sentences for prisoners sentenced to 36 months and below who will have served a quarter of their sentences save for those serving specified offences, full remission of remaining period of imprisonment to all terminally ill prisoners upon certification by a prison medical officer of government medical officer of the fact that they are unlikely to survive their prison terms provided they are not serving for specified offences.”
Banda said a full remission of sentence has been granted to all inmates serving terms of imprisonment at open prisons provided they are not serving specified offences.
She added that all inmates sentenced to life in prison or to long terms of imprisonment on or before May 31 1989 and have served 20 years of more have also been granted full remission of the remaining period of imprisonment.
Prisoners excluded from amnesty include those on death row, habitual criminals serving a sentence of extended imprisonment, any person who escaped from custody and is still at large, person on bail pending appeal against conviction or sentence, persons serving sentences imposed by a court martial and persons serving sentences of imprisonment for a specified offence.
Specified offences include murder, rape or any sexual offence, carjacking, armed robbery, stock theft, tampering with apparatus for generating, transmitting, distributing or supplying electricity with results of electricity interruption or cutting off and damaging destroying or interfering with any apparatus for generating transmitting distributing or supplying electricity. Conspiracy and being an accessory to the offences above.
Sep 03, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
HARARE, Saturday 11 July 2009 – Zimbabwe prison officials admitted for the first time on Friday dire conditions in the country’s jails, describing the under-funded and overcrowded prisons as an “embarrassment to the criminal justice system”.
Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) Deputy Commissioner Washington Chimboza said the service was unable to feed or clothe prisoners to the standards prescribed by law, adding that authorities had not been to observe the rights of prisoners over the last three years.
Chimboza, who was addressing a workshop on prisoner’s rights organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), said: “The Zimbabwe Prison Service has been unable to satisfy any of its mandatory obligations due to the fact that we were heavily incapacitated . . . we have now become an embarrassment to the criminal justice system.”
The ZPS official said prisons were required under the law to provide adequate food to inmates but were unable to do so due to budgetary constraints.
“Food commodities spelt out in the statutory instrument have not been able to be provided. Since 2006 we have experienced the worst and highest death rate in the history of the service. The most severe cases were experienced in 2008 where pellagra was rampant in our prisons,” said Chimboza.
Zimbabwe has 72 prisons carrying 12 971 prisoners, according to Chimboza.
The ZPS official said most of the prisoners walked semi-naked every day because ZPS cannot afford prison uniform for both inmates and staff. The water and food situation was “very poor” at most prisons, he said.
He said ZPS was using only two pots to cook for 2 000 inmates at Chikurubi:
“The little food procured has not been prepared under healthy conditions since all the cooking pots we had have seen their days. We have resorted to using drums sourced from the neighboring Larfage Cement.
“Even after we cook the food, we don’t have plates and other utensils. Prisoners have had to rely on lunch boxes and empty ice cream containers from relatives to use as plates,” said Chimboza.
He said the situation was equally dire for lowly paid staff whose working conditions had deteriorated.
He said lack of accommodation had resulted in prison officers renting houses or rooms from prisoners. – Simplicious Chirinda, ZimOnline.
Jul 19, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
July 11, 2009
HARARE, July 11 2009 – The Judge President, Rita Makarau, yesterday said it is the duty of all judicial officers to protect the rights of prisoners.
Makarau was speaking at a meeting of human and prisoner’s rights stakeholders organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in Harare.
“It is the duty of all judicial officers to protect the rights of prisoners. They must be invited to these training workshops and trainings,” said Makarau.
“Prisoners do have rights and at the High Court we are guided by the provisions of the Supreme Court and that should also be applied down to the magistrate courts.”
Makarau’s colleague and fellow High Court judge, Charles Hungwe, also told the meeting that the business of protecting the rights of prisoners does not only lie with the prisons.
“The magistrates can make unscheduled visits to any prisons. In future it will be appropriate for the Provincial Magistrate to keep an eye on what is happening at the prisons rather than just (viewing) the magistrates’ courts. They must make more frequent visits to the prisons to see what should be done,” said Hungwe.
Hungwe said he had to personally intervene to try and save the situation at Mutare prison which had become overcrowded because of the huge number of people who were arrested in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
“Mutare Prison was overcrowded. There was a sudden influx of prisoners due to the Chiadzwa diamond rush. The police were bussing three 75-seater buses full of prisoners to court but after the granting of bail the prisoners could not pay bail,” said Hungwe.
“The result was that at some stage food stocks ran out and prisoners had to sleep standing, I made the decision to release the accused on free bail,” said Hungwe.
Speaking at the same meeting an official from the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) painted a bleak picture of the prisons.
“The Zimbabwe Prison Service has been unable to satisfy any of its mandatory obligations due to the fact that we were heavily incapacitated. We have now become an embarrassment to the criminal justice system,” said Washington Chimboza, the Deputy Commissioner of Prisons.
According to the Prisons General Regulations of 1996 the Zimbabwe Prison Services should provide adequate food to inmates but has been failing to do so.
“Food commodities spelt out in the statutory instrument have not been provided. Since 2006 we have experienced the worst and highest death rate in the history of the service. The most severe cases were experienced in 2008 when pellagra was rampant in our prisons,” said Chimboza.
“Malnutrition acted as a catalyst to most deaths given that where cases of opportunistic infections were evident, it was impossible to commence medication since there was no food in the country in general and particularly in the prisons.”
The Prison Service requires 500 tonnes of maize-meal a month to feed a prison population of 13 000 inmates. The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is supposed to supply ZPS with these requirements but has not been able to do so.
ZPS administers a total of 46 prisons and 26 satellite prisons throughout the country. These prisons include the old type built at the turn of the last century, such as the Harare Central Prison, Masvingo Remand Prison and modern structures built after independence such as Kadoma, Mutare Farm, Chipinge and Khami Maximum Prisons. While the official holding capacity is 17 000, Deputy Chimboza said that the current prison population stands at around 12 971, comprising 10 299 convicted and 2 672 remand prisoners.
The female population stands at 694.
“Our inability to honour such a mandatory obligation has caused untold suffering to the inmate population in our custody,” said Chimboza.
“The little food procured has not been prepared under healthy conditions since all the cooking pots we had have seen their days. Of the 26 pots at Chikurubi Maximum none is working and this has led to the creation of a temporary kitchen where cast iron pots are in use.”
“We have resorted to using drums sourced from neighbouring Lafarge Cement.”
He added that they had not been able to transport inmates to court for either remand or trial to the extend of requesting that the canteen at Marondera Prison be converted into a court house for further remand.
“The security vehicles, the only four Mercedes Benz Atego trucks have been parked since August 2008 because we could not afford to repair and service them,” said Chimboza.
Chimboza said the water situation has been equally dire.
“The water situation in our prisons is very poor. Chikurubi Prison Complex has gone for five years without ZINWA providing any water,” said Chimboza.
“This shortage has seen the birth of water borne diseases due to inadequate cleanliness.”
The government recently passed a resolution allowing relatives of inmates to provide clothing and other necessities to prisoners. Chimboza said the community will have to come on board to safe the situation.
“Inmates do not lose their right to health care by virtue of being in custody,” said Chimboza.
- www.TheZimbabweTimes.com
Jul 16, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
Zimbabwe activists have distributed tens of thousands of anti-Zimondi flyers throughout the country. We offer you a chance to download and print out these flyers and get them to a wider audience.
While Deputy Prisons Commissioner, Washington Chimboza, has admitted embarrassment, to date Zimondi himself has not uttered a single word of regret over the state of Zimbabwe prisons and the plight of inmates under his care, many of whom have died of starvation and diseases including cholera.
Anywhere else in the world Paradzai Zimondi would have been court-martialled and dismissed in disgrace. But this is Zimbabwe, where Mugabe cronies are immune, political prisoners are considered enemies of the state, and political patronage breeds corruption and unbridled abuse.
Click on image to enlarge
Jun 25, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From BBC News – 5th June, 2009
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has begun distributing food and other supplies to thousands of Zimbabwean prison inmates.
It did not comment on conditions, but previous reports have depicted ill, emaciated detainees living in squalor.
The ICRC said food shortages in prisons were closely linked to the economic crisis in the country as a whole.
It said it was working closely with authorities to improve the situation for “the most vulnerable detainees”.
Despite the ICRC’s policy of not commenting on conditions in the prisons it visits, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the statement is in itself an indication of how bad things are.
The ICRC says it has begun feeding 6,300 prisoners, setting up therapeutic feeding programmes – a sign of severe malnutrition.
Maggots
A month ago, a secretly filmed South African TV documentary – called Hell Hole – exposed the appalling conditions inside Zimbabwean jails.
It showed sick and healthy prisoners living side by side in unhygienic and overcrowded cells.
 |
 There are people there who look worse than the photographs of prisoners in Dachau and Auschwitz 
Roy Bennett
Imprisoned MDC politician, speaking on release in March
|
Amid high death rates, makeshift mortuaries had been set up in prison grounds, housing prisoners’ bodies crawling with maggots.
The appalling conditions were confirmed by Roy Bennett, a leading politician with Zimbabwe’s erstwhile opposition MDC party – which now shares power with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
He was imprisoned for several weeks on charges including terrorism and banditry.
After being freed on bail in March, he said his time in jail had been a “harrowing experience” which “I don’t wish on my worst enemy”.
“There are people there who look worse than the photographs of prisoners in [Nazi concentration camps] Dachau and Auschwitz,” he said.
At one prison, Chikurubi, at least 700 of the 1,300 inmates died last year, Zimbabwe weekly The Standard reported in May.
Minister’s woes
Three days ago, the South Africa-based ZimOnline website carried an interview with Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
He said his ministry had received only a fraction of the budget it had been promised for the year – $327,000 (£200,000) of $17.7m.
He said the money was going towards food and basic provisions for prisoners, but did not meet even those needs.
Mr Chinamasa said in the face of the prolonged budgetary freeze, his ministry had resorted to appealing for private donations.
Red Cross goals
The ICRC says that by the end of the year it expects to be feeding 10,000 prisoners – more than half the official figure of Zimbabwe’s prison population, though the real figure is thought to be much higher.
In addition to food, the ICRC said it was providing prisoners with basic provisions such as blankets and soap.
It also plans to renovate prison kitchens and water systems in a bid to prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera.
It said it was working with the Zimbabwean authorities to try to ensure the improvements are maintained – something our correspondent says will not be easy.
Jun 09, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From SW Radio Africa – by Tichaona Sibanda, 4th May 2009
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has still to brief Members of Parliament why the country’s defence chiefs still refuse to salute the Prime Minister, six weeks after the issue was raised by an MDC legislator.
The MDC MP for Makoni Central, John Nyamande, first raised the issue with Mnangagwa in March. His question has however been deferred on several occasions, due to the Defence Minister’s unavailability to respond to it.
‘Whether he’s ducking the question or not, I don’t know, but I will still ask him because sooner or later he’s going to be in parliament to answer questions,’ Nyamande said. Parliament is currently on one of it’s numerous breaks, but will reopen on the 12th May.
According to the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Assembly order no 18 of the 25th March 2009, MP Nyamande asked Mnangagwa whether the service chiefs still maintain that they will not salute Morgan Tsvangirai. He also asked the Defence Minister to explain their absence during the swearing in of Tsvangirai by Mugabe at State House.
‘People want to know what the service chiefs are up to,’ Nyamande added. The MP, an educationist by profession who holds a BA in Philosophy and a Masters in educational studies, defeated Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in last year’s parliamentary elections.
‘In the spirit of the inclusiveness of government we expected that the service chiefs would follow in line with Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s working relationship. What has suprised many of us is that they haven’t extended the same kind of respect and spirit of inclusiveness. That worries a lot of people,’ the MDC legislator said.
A source in Harare told us once Nyamande’s question was raised it was sent to Mnangagwa’s office, who in turn passed it over to the service chiefs for their input.
‘A lot of middle ranking and junior officers are of the opinion that if their commanders are reluctant to salute Tsvangirai, they should resign from the security forces. This issue has raised a series of consultations within the security forces and you can tell a lot of people are uncomfortable with the status quo,’ our source told us.
The service chiefs seem to be living up to their public vow which they made just before last year’s harmonized elections, when they said they were not going to salute Tsvangirai. Since the formation of the all inclusive government earlier this year, they have not yet demonstrated that they have abandoned their disdain for the Prime Minister.
The powerful service chiefs, who include Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga, Army Commander Lieutenant General Phillip Sibanda, Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi, Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, and Air Marshall Perence Shiri, are seen as a major stumbling block towards full implementation of the terms set by the unity agreement.
May 05, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
From The Zimbabwe Independent - By Lucia Makamure, 29th April 2009
LAWYERS representing 18 MDC-T activists who were last year abducted by suspected state security agents and kept incommunicado have written to the Ministry of Home Affairs demanding US$7 million compensation for their clients who were tortured.
The 18, who are facing terrorism charges, were abducted between October and December last year and held in secret locations for more than three months before being handed over to the police.
In one of the 18 letters written to the co-Ministers of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa last week, the lawyers Mbidzo, Muchadehama & Makoni, want the state to compensate their clients for physical and psychological trauma suffered during their “unlawful” detention.
“We act for our client Gandhi Mudzingwa who has asked us to notify yourselves, and officials and other persons whose names appear hereunder, of his intention to sue yourselves and the said officials and persons,” one of the letters says.
Among those being sued by the activists are Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, Minister of State Security in the President’s Office Sydney Sekeramayi, Minister of Defence Emmerson Mnangagwa, Commissioner of Prisons Paradzai Zimondi, Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa, Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Happyton Bonyongwe.
In the case of Mudzingwa, the lawyers said their client was abducted on December 8 last year, thrown into a Mazda Familia and was assaulted while blindfolded.
“Mudzingwa was taken to an undisclosed location where he was received by a cheering crowd which further assaulted him using open hands, bricks and all sorts of objects,” the letter says.
The other MDC-T activists include Pascal Gonzo, Fedelis Chiramba, Concilia Chinanzvavana, Manuel Chinanzvavana, Mapfumo Garutsa, Regis Mujeyi, Zacharia Nkomo, Andrison Manyere, Chinototo Zulu, Kisimusi Dhlamini, Broderick Takawira, Violet Mupfuranheve, Nigel Mupfuranhewe, Pieta Kaseke, Collen Mutemagau, Audrey Zimbudzana and Tawanda Bvumo.
Mudzingwa’s lawyers said the police should be made to pay for the trauma their client suffered as they have failed to arrest his abductors.
“The police saw the persons who brought our client to the Highlands Police Station but they did nothing. They did not arrest the kidnappers who had presented themselves.
The police are therefore complicit in our client’s abduction and torture,” argued Mudzingwa’s lawyers.
Mudzingwa, the lawyers said, was a victim of enforced disappearances which were outlawed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 47/133 of December 18 1992.
The letter also stated that the ill-treatment of the activists violated Section 15 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 1 of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which all provide for the protection against inhuman treatment.
May 04, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From SW Radio Africa – By Tichaona Sibanda, 28th April 2009
The Ministry of Justice is facing fresh pressure to overhaul its prison facilities, after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was finally ‘allowed’ to begin work on improving conditions at the prisons.
Andre Jaross, the ICRC deputy head of delegation in Harare, said the organization began work two weeks ago at Chikurubi Maximum Security and Harare Central prisons, and would soon extend its work to other jails across the country.
The government reached an agreement with the ICRC to work in the prisons following shocking reports that emerged in the media that brought international condemnation.
Film taken secretly in the prisons showed living skeletons, unable to move, and makeshift mortuaries filled with bodies. A prison sentence in Zimbabwe today is almost a guaranteed death sentence. Prisoners who have no family to bring them extra food are virtually guaranteed a slow and very painful death.
Shepherd Yuda, a former prison officer, told us prisoners are packed into dark, airless, lice-infested cells, where they are exposed to life-threatening diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis, for which they receive little or no medical treatment.
Yuda urged the ICRC to do more than simply assess conditions in prisons, and urged them to evaluate inmates’ requirements and prepare a report for the government. He said they should call for an overhaul of the whole prison system, starting from top to bottom.
Yuda blames Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi for the decay in the prison system. He said that before Zimondi took over the country’s prison system was one of the best in the Southern African region.
‘We used to have standards and guarantees about the treatment of prisoners: an individual, whatever his or her crimes, must not be tortured; must not be held in unsanitary or unsafe conditions that could place him in danger or lead to his death; he is entitled to adequate nourishment and medical care. He is, above all, entitled to his dignity. Yet this basic right is routinely being flouted throughout the prison system in Zimbabwe,’ Yuda said.
‘Every single level of authority in our country has failed our prisoners. Overcrowding and tight budgets create an atmosphere ripe for disease, abuse and violence. Right now our prisons don’t help rehabilitate anyone. Conditions in the system create monsters instead of reforming,’ Yuda added.
Human-rights groups have also voiced their concern about the prison conditions in the country. They said it will take a major reform of the entire system to eradicate the kind of practices prevalent in the prisons.
ZimOnline reported on Monday that a local prisoners’ rights group, the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO), said at least two inmates die everyday from hunger and disease at Chikurubi and Harare Central – the country’s two biggest jails.
The Website said most prisoners have to survive on a single meal per day of sadza and cabbage boiled in salted water, because there is no money to buy adequate supplies.
Apr 30, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Zimbabwe Telegraph – By Rumbi Mundimba, 20th April, 2009
The commissioner of prisons Paradzai Zimondi has been fingered as a proponent cum-cog of the elimination axis that also targets co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa amid revelations that the recent Marondera road mishap that befell the minister was pay back for his earlier “outbursts” that he was eager to clip the wings of the former member of the notorious Joint Operation Command (JOC) as he was a stumbling block to national healing, Zimbabwe Telegraph has heard.
Following Mutsekwa’s public announcement that he wanted to tame Zimondi, other members of JOC notoriously known as the junta joined in the silent and subtle war and elevated his name to the top of the elimination list before he pounced his claws on their fellow soldier of misfortune.
Mutsekwa is included in the elimination list of senior MDC officials that include Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, among others.
A family member of the Mutsekwa stable has since said that the accident that befell the co-home affairs minister was suspicious.
Mutsekwa was alone in his official Mercedes Benz when the near-tragedy occurred.
Mutsekwa was not reachable for comment by the time of going to print. He is however credited for having facilitated for the freedom of human rights director Jestina Mukoko while his fellow co-home affairs minister Kembo Mohadi was in Zambia.
The powers of the Junta were partially clipped following Robert Mugabe’s signature of the national security council bill which created the National Security Council .
Meanwhile a political commentator has said that the all-inclusive government was heading for a brick-wall as ZANU PF has mooted a plan to express its sincerity for only a year and would change its game plan in the second half of the all-inclusive arrangement.
The second half of the all-inclusive government would be used as a build up of the campaign of retribution against the MDC and other perceived enemies of the state*
Apr 30, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
The Interview that Never Was
Since our Prisons Commissioner will not make a statement, comment or answer any questions from the public or the press, here are just a few of the questions to which the Zimbabwean public would love to hear the answers:
20 questions for Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi
1) When did you first become aware that the situation in your prisons had become so bad, and what did you do about it?
2) Why did you not ask for assistance from Treasury, or contact the humanitarian aid organisations before now?
3) What happened to the educational, vocational and rehabilitation programs that were in place when you took office?
4) What has happened to the prison farms under your tenure, and why are they no longer supplying food to prisoners?
5) Have you considered resigning over this issue?
6) Do you think that ZPS officers responsible for the deaths of prison inmates should be punished?
7) To whom did you submit your annual reports?
8 ) Does your administration keep proper records of the cause of death and the burial place of each inmate?
9) Are you aware that your staff may be stealing food and other supplies from the quartermaster’s stores, for their own use or to sell on the informal market?
10) When was the last time you made a personal inspection of any of your prisons?
11) Have you ever deployed your senior prison officers to perform duties outside of the prisons, for example during Operation
Makavhoterapapi?
12) Do you know that disrupting court hearings, and disobeying High Court orders, is a punishable offense called ’Contempt of Court’?
13) At what point did the medical facilities at the prisons, collapse?
14) How many prison doctors and nurses are there on the ZPS payroll today?
15) Are you aware of the provisions of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders?
16) Are you aware that Zimbabwe is signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)?
17) What measures did you take when there was an outbreak of cholera in the jails in December 2008?
18) For what services did you receive your medal (Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit) from President Mugabe on Armed Forces Day in August 2008?
19) Is it true that the commercial farms that you own make use of free prison labour?
20) Is it true that you supplied food and accommodation to the ‘Green Bombers’ i.e. ZanuPF youth militia in the Uzumba area, while they were engaged in torture, rape and murder of defenceless villagers before and after the 2008 elections?
Apr 27, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Zimbabwe telegraph – By MCEDISI NKOMO April 20, 2009
The Government of National Unity is on the verge of collapse after a meeting scheduled for Friday was aborted due to clear differences over Mugabe’s disregard of the terms of the GPA agreement which created the GNU, the Zimbabwe Telegraph has established. Mugabe, Mutambara and Tsvangirai were supposed to meet to resolve outstanding issues such as the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, Governors, Attorney General and RBZ Governor.The meeting failed to take place due to clear indications that Mugabe was unwilling to compromise.This forced the Principals to invite the deal-broker Thabo Mbeki to mediate and save the deal from collapsing.This was worsened the the already tense relationship between MDC-T and the Arned forces chiefs who walked out on Tsvangirai when he entered the National Stadium for Independence celebrations.There was very little activity in the capital city, Harare on Saturday to show that people were celebrating the 29th anniversary independence celebrations as most people went about their normal business.
There were no incidents of people being forced to attend celebrations at National Sports Stadium as had been the norm in the past. There were also no fears of rowdy party youths wearing either the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, or Zanu PF T Shirts.
Bottle stores and hotels were almost empty with the few places open, selling goods at reduced prices. One could buy a beer for US$1 but at other places one could get two beers for the same amount in Harare.
However service chiefs were reportedly said to have shunned Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as he arrived at the national sports stadium, the venue of this year’s independence celebrations.
The Service chiefs populaly known as JOC or the Junta in February boycotted Tsvangirai’s inauguration ceremony as Prime Minister, were said to have moved out of the national sports stadium when the master of ceremony Media Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu announced the arrival of Tsvangirai ahead of President Robert Mugabe.
Commander of the defence forces Constantine Chiwenga, Police commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Prison Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi rose from their seats at the time Shamu was announcing the arrival of Tsvangirai.
They went to stand at the stadium entrance where they waited for President to arrive while Tsvangirai was taking his seat.
The service chiefs last year said they would not salute Tsvangirai even if he was elected the President of the country by the people of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai and his deputies Thokozani Khupe and Professor Arthur Mutambara attended the independence ceremony which was held under the theme “Restoring Zimbabwe’s Vibrancy.”
The MDC had urged Zimbabweans from all walks of life to attend the ceremony which it said was coming amid a climate of new-found hope and better prospects for the country.
The MDC had previously not attended Independence Day celebrations because it said the national day had been privatized and parochialised by unilateral political interests.
“As a country, we waged a painful liberation struggle to bring back our dignity and respect for human rights that had been eroded through a century of colonialism,” said the party on the official website of the Prime Minister.
“Our challenge as we celebrate this year’s Independence Day is to look back at the journey we have travelled and begin to carve out a new chapter where we say to ourselves never again should a people be subjected to terror, selective justice, poverty, lawlessness and fear by those that govern them.
This year’s celebrations must rekindle the nation’s hopes and aspirations; especially considering the consummation of the inclusive government in February 2009 which enabled Zimbabweans to open a new chapter of national rebirth.
“Independence means jobs, food, education, shelter, basic freedoms and better health care for everyone. We believe that the direction taken by the political leaders is an important step in the right direction in achieving these fundamentals.”
“As a party, we believe this year’s celebrations must reflect the new era of inclusiveness. The Independence Day programme, the speeches and the general arrangements of this important day must reflect a diverse people working together for the betterment of the country of their birth.
The day must reflect the new-found camaraderie among erstwhile political protagonists in a new political atmosphere that engenders hope and prosperity for the people of Zimbabwe. The nation expects to hear speeches from the leaders of the various political parties who have decided to shelve narrow and partisan political interest for the national good.
This all remains wish full thinking as Mugabe has continously undermined the GNU and the MDC-T .Mugabe has refused to swear in Deputy minister of Agriculture Roy Bennet.
A few weeks back he stripped the ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa part of his responsibilites handing them to his trusted ally Nicholas Goche.
Chamisa has threatened to resign but observers believe Mugabe is just testing the MDC-Ts resolve and he is unlikely to compromise.
The MDC was expected to lead efforts to raise money from the West and to have sanctions removed.However Mugabe’s actions including supporting fresh farm invasions have made it impossible to convince the west thet Zimbabwe has changed.
Apr 21, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Financial Gazette - Friday, 17 April 2009 15:12
FOLLOWING the broadcast recently of a documentary on SABC exposing inhuman conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons, three warders allegedly responsible for smuggling cameras in were arrested. They are Thabiso Nyathi, Siyai Muchechedzi and Thembinkosi Nkomo.
They predictably will be punished, but not the prison officials responsible for such cruelty and barbarism that shocked television viewers.
The condition of the skeletal and visibly ill prisoners who featured in the expose titled “Hell Hole” shocked viewers in South Africa and beyond. Surely, this cannot happen in any country in the 21st Century.
The prisoners looked like inmates of Hitler’s concentration camps or Stalin’s gulags. How could a government in this day and age permit people under its care to be treated so sadistically?
The organisation, Zimbabwe Democracy Now, ran advertisements in some South African newspapers this week calling for the resignation of Zimbabwe Prison Services Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi and his two deputies.
In any civilised country, heads would roll. But Zimbabwe no longer meets the standard of a civilised country. As usual, it is those who had the temerity to blow the whistle that will be punished.
They embarrassed the government by exposing its true nature. For that the three warders will be made an example of while those responsible for the despicable conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons will most probably be promoted.
One of the worst legacies of the ZANU-PF government’s reign will be the manner in which it extended the brutality of the regime to segments of society by enlisting young people to perpetrate all sorts of violent crimes.
Since the formation of the Border Gezi militias about seven years ago, between 10 and 15 000 young people have been turned into robotic torturers, rapists and murderers.
Crude propaganda and substance abuse have combined to turn these youths into callous merchants of violence.
They do so fortified by knowledge that a blanket immunity protects them. Monthly stipends from the state, which are still being disbursed despite the alleged dawn of a new political era, only serve as an added incentive to do anything ordered by those calling the shots.
A culture of violence and impunity has taken root in Zimbabwe especially in the past nine years. Its seeds were, however, sown soon after independence.
Right from the onset, the ZANU-PF government responded with violent brutality to any real or perceived political threat.
Gukurahundi in the 1980s must be seen within this context. In 2000, perpetrators of violence were expanded to include those not in the formal employ of the state.
At first war veterans were at the forefront to give legitimacy to land invasions and attendant violence. Soon afterwards, as the threat posed by the MDC refused to go away, the militia was formed to add numbers and youthful energy to the regime’s campaign of violence. It is important to point out that neither the war veterans nor youth militia could have been effective without the logistical, material and financial support given by the army, police and CIO. The brutalisation of the Zimbabwean society was well underway.
Any respectable country must be built on a foundation of decent values and morality. As the violence in Zimbabwe became increasingly institutionalised, it became acceptable to loot, maim, murder and drive people from their homes.
Through crude propaganda and self-interest, a belief took root that violence against enemies of ZANU-PF was legitimate and justifiable because the party liberated Zimbabwe and was the sole custodian of the interests of its people.
Violence against Ndebeles was justified in the name of defending the revolution. So was violence against white farmers seen as the continuation of the struggle for land.
Members of the MDC were fair game because they were stooges of the British and their kith and kin in Zimbabwe. The list of fair targets grew as the threat against the regime stubbornly persisted. It is a measure of how total the impunity is for those who act in the name of the regime that no one from Gukurahundi to the violence that still continues today, has been arrested and prosecuted.
There are those who will read this and say it is improper to bring this issue up at a time when an inclusive government is trying to heal and reconcile the nation. The answer is simple: If, as is the case, all the crimes committed in the past are swept under the carpet for the comfort and convenience of politicians, nothing will be achieved.
If there is no justice, acknowledgment and compensation for victims, Zimbabwe will not move forward in a meaningful and sustainable way. These past crimes will recur. Putting a plain bandage over a festering wound never heals it.
The brutal excesses of the ZANU-PF era must be officially acknowledged and all forms of redress effected for the poison of the past not to infect a new body politic.
The regime also knew that as long as victims of its terror were poor blacks in rural areas and townships, the world would not go beyond the symbolic gestures of disapproval. No action would be taken to imperil the very existence of the regime.
No one would be brought to justice. It is no coincidence that at the height of land invasions in 2000, of the thousands of white families on farms throughout the country, only nine were murdered.
Blacks were killed in their hundreds. Such an alarming rate among whites would have provoked serious consequences for the regime’s leaders. It is sickening hypocrisy on the part of those who claim to act in the name of black Africans.
All these crimes against people over an extended period take a huge toll on the character of a nation. The humanity of perpetrators is destroyed. They operate in a moral vacuum. Nothing is sacred anymore including the lives of people. No principle is beyond sacrifice.
A culture of lust for power and greed takes over. A deep sense of entitlement lies at the centre of their thoughts and deeds. The nation loses its moral compass.
Leaders become heartless and totally oblivious to the masses’ suffering and squalor. A sense of self-righteousness and invincibility makes it impossible for them to distinguish right from wrong. Fearful and cowed the populace largely submits to this savagery.
It is this environment that makes it possible for prisoners to be allowed to needlessly die of malnutrition, hunger and disease. It is such a system that allows prisoners to live in conditions of disgusting filth in which human excrement is all over the place.
Only people who have lost their humanity can let prisoners live with dead bodies in their cells until they begin to decompose and emit an unbearably foul smell.
If a system does not care about an old lady in the rural areas who has her son murdered and home torched for supporting the opposition, how can it give a toss for prisoners?
The three warders will pay a heavy price for their bravery, patriotism and humanity. They must have known the risk they were taking, but decided to do the right thing by exposing this outrage. For that, all decent people are thankful. Their efforts may well lead to far-reaching prison reforms in the not-too-distant future.
Apr 19, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The New York Times – April 14, 2009
From left: Paradzai Zimondi, Perrence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga and Augustine Chihuri.
HARARE (New York Times) – President Robert Mugabe’s top lieutenants are trying to force the opposition Movement of Democratic Change to grant them amnesty for their past crimes, according to senior members of Mugabe’s party.
Their fixation on getting amnesty was described by four senior ruling party officials, all Mugabe confidants, who spoke to a Zimbabwean journalist working for The New York Times.
To protect themselves, some of Mugabe’s lieutenants are trying to implicate opposition officials in a supposed plot to overthrow the president, hoping to use it as leverage in any amnesty talks, the officials said.
Mugabe’s generals and politicians in Zanu-PF have organised campaigns of terror for decades to keep him and his party in power.
Crimes committed during last year’s election campaign, while the world watched, included abducting, detaining and torturing opposition officials and activists.
Mugabe’s lieutenants, part of an inner circle called the Joint Operations Command, know that their 85-year-old leader may not be around much longer to shield them, and fear losing not just their power and ill-gotten wealth, but their freedom, party officials said. The security chiefs include General Constantine Chiwenga, commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Air Marshall Perrence Shiri, commander of the Air Force, Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri of the police and Paradzai Zimondi commissioner of the Zimbabwe Prison Services.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, one of Mugabe’s principal negotiators in the power-sharing talks that led to the current government, informally told opposition officials around the time that the transitional government took office in February that his party wanted an amnesty, according to a senior Zanu-PF official close to the talks.
“The MDC did not sound very forthcoming,” said the official.
Apr 14, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
